Quotes from book

Ham on Rye

“Dying in a a war never stopped wars from happening.”

“That the young rich smell the stink of the poor and learn to find it a bit amusing. They had to laugh, otherwise it would be too terrifying.”

“News travels fast in places where nothing much ever happens.”

“The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left.”

“They laughed. Things were funny. They weren't afraid to care. There was no sense to life, to the structure of things.”

“They were beautiful nothings”

“I had no Freedom. I had nothing.”

“If you can hit a guy once, you can hit him twice.”

“I knew I was strong, and maybe like they said, "crazy." But I had this feeling inside of me that something real was there.”

“The park grass looked greener, the park benches looked better and the flowers were trying harder.”

“Everything was eternally dreary, dismal, damned. Even the weather was insolent and bitchy.”

“The best thing about the bedroom was the bed. I liked to stay in bed for hours, even during the day with covers pulled up to my chin. It was good in there, nothing ever occurred in there, no people, nothing.”

“You just rebel against everything. How are you going to survive?

I don't know. I'm already tired.”

“Getting drunk was good. I decided that I would always like getting drunk. It took away the obvious and maybe if you could get away from the obvious often enough, you wouldn't become so obvious yourself.”