I had never been with a woman for longer than a night, and they had always been whores. And while throughout each of these speedy encounters I tried to maintain a friendliness with the women, I knew in my heart it was false, and afterward always felt remote and caved in. I had in the last year or so given up whores entirely, thinking it best to go without rather than pantomime human closeness.

...I am happy to welcome you to a town peopled in morons exclusively. Furthermore, I hope that your transformation to moron is not an unpleasant experience.

Our blood is the same, we just use it differently.

We can all of us be hurt, and no one is exclusively safe from worry and sadness.

I sighed. ‘It doesn’t matter what we do. Money comes and goes.’ I shook my head. ‘It doesn’t matter and you know it doesn’t.

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

Where is your mother, Charlie asked. Dead. I’m sorry to hear that Thank you. But she was always dead.