  I stress the importance of retaining a healthy classical limit while we
search for an ultraviolet completion to quantum gravity. A key problem with
negative-norm quantizations of higher derivative Lagrangians is that their
classical limits do not correspond to real-valued metrics evolving in a
real-valued spacetime. I also demonstrate that no completion based on the flat
spacetime background S-matrix can suffice by providing an explicit example of a
theory with unit S-matrix which still shows interesting changes in
single-particle kinematics and in the evolution of its background. I discuss
the implications of these considerations for the program of Asymptotic Safety.
Finally, I urge that some attention be given to the possibility that quantum
general relativity might make sense if only we could go beyond conventional
perturbation theory.
