You know, small children take it as a matter of course that things will change every day and grown-ups understand that things change sooner or later and their job is to keep them from changing as long as possible. It’s only kids in high school who are convinced they’re never going to change. There’s always going to be a pep rally and there’s always going to be a spectator bus, somewhere out there in their future.

But who can foresee such things? None of us can predict the final outcomes of our actions, and few of us even try; most of us just do what we do to prolong a moment's pleasure or to stop the pain. And even when we act for the noblest reasons, the last link of the chain all too often drips with someone's blood.

People can be stunningly unobservant.

It's a cash and carry world. Sometimes you pay a little. Mostly it's a lot. Sometimes, it's everything you have.

Oh Christ, he groaned to himself, if this is the stuff adults have to think about I never want to grow up

Everything in moderation. And that includes a couple of beers a day.

It's not the pain I'm afraid of; I know about the pain. What I'm afraid of is the end of this small, sweet dream.