Before pop art, there was such a thing as bad taste. Now there's kitsch, schlock, camp, and porn.

There are dead stars that still shine because their light is trapped in time. Where do I stand in this light, which does not strictly exist? (155)

Look past the violence. There is a wonderful brimming spirit of innocence and fun.

In these night recitations we create a space between things as we felt them at the time and as we speak them now. This is the space reserved for irony, sympathy and fond amusement, the means by which we rescue ourselves from the past.

Look at those numbers running. Money makes time. It used to be the other way around. Clock time accelerated the rise of capitalism. People stopped thinking about eternity. They began to concentrate on hours, measurable hours,man-hours, using labor more efficiently.

Out of some persistent sense of large-scale ruin, we kept inventing hope.

Was she naked?" Lasher said. "To the waist," Cotsakis said. "From which direction?" Lasher said.