The city glitters past us with its sharp edges, reminding us of how tiny, how weak, how totally unimportant we are.

It is what we see when we imagine what the afterlife must be like: our happiest triumphs, our most sincere moments, stolen from the seam of our lives, a respite just before the onset of imminent tragedy.

Being decent is the only thing that matters in a terrible world like this.

The city glitters past us with its sharp edges, reminding us of how tiny, how weak, how totally unimportant we are.

Where do you go when you die? Ha ha. Go on, go on and tell her, Billy." Billy smiles. "You become a little voice in someone's ear telling them that things will be alright.

It is the strain of walking around the world-down the street, riding city buses and elevators, moving from place to place to place-and not knowing who might want to destroy you, who might like to fill your heart with poison, who might rob you and stab you, who might stand above you in the dark with a tarantula.

The world of evil is only as evil as we allow it to be.