ah shake off rents, he can go and kill himself with drugs. some fucking friends i have. spud, second prize, begbie, matty, tommy: these punters spell l-i-m-i-t-e-d. an extremely limited company.
“the boy who rode on slightly before him sat a horse not only as if he’d been born to it which he was but as if were he begot by malice or mischance into some queer land where horses never were he would have found them anyway.”
“for some time now i’ve had the feeling that novelists and terrorists are playing a zero-sum game.” “interesting. how so?” “what terrorists gain, novelists lose. the degree to which they influence mass consciousness is the extent of our decline as shapers of sensibility and thought. the danger they represent equals our own failure to be dangerous.”
“whole problem ’th you folks’s generation,” isaiah opined, “nothing personal, is you believed in your revolution, put your lives right out there for it—but you sure didn’t understand much about the tube. minute the tube got hold of you folks that was it, that whole alternative america, el deado meato, just like th’ indians, sold it all to your real enemies, and even in 1970 dollars—it was way too cheap. . . .”
he no longer had to steal. he no longer had to worry about following women through the streets or spending time in rat-infested rooms. it was not a conscious realization, but an inner knowledge, something that he somehow accepted axiomatically. but the inner man knew that when you take something away that a life is dependent upon, you must replace it with something of value. and that something of value was evolving like a fetus in the dark security of the womb. and harry nurtured it slowly. and caressed it. allowing it to seep slowly into his mind. not forcing it, but allowing himself to be tantalized by the little hints of where it was going. this life-changing something remained undefined for many, many weeks, and as he continued to surrender to this inner feeling, harry became more and more withdrawn and gave the appearance of extreme serenity. there was a constant smile on his face that reflected an inner glow, as if he had a secret no one else was privy to.
