I do not know what it was about that boy but just looking at him, even I wanted to clout him on the head. It was a head that invited violence.

Most people are chained to their own fear and stupidity and haven’t the sense to level a cold eye at just what is wrong with their lives. Most people will continue on, dissatisfied but never attempting to understand why, or how they might change things for the better, and they die with nothing in their hearts but dirt and old, thin blood - weak blood, diluted - and their memories aren’t worth a goddamned thing.

It is hard to find a friend,' I said. 'It is the hardest thing in this world,' he agreed.

Here is another miserable mental image I will have to catalog and make room for.

Your skin is prickly from fatigue and pain and there is a hissing in your ears. Time passes and the pills are taking hold like a glowing white planet coming into view. A reverse eclipse. And you watch with your eyes closed. The white planet is half exposed, it grips your heart in its light and seems to be pulling you forward and now you feel that you are falling. You are awake but dreaming. "The earth is not beautiful but the universe is," you say.

He only wished to fight and cultivate an anger toward me, thus alleviating his guilt, but I would not abet him in this.

I do not know what it was about that boy but just looking at him, even I wanted to clout him on the head. It was a head that invited violence.