Apr 232010

Between these two I now felt I had to choose. My two natures had memory in common, but all other faculties were most unequelly shared between them. Jekyll (who was composite) now with the most sensitive apprehensions, now with a greedy gusto, projected and shared in the advertures of Hyde; but Hyde was indifferent to Jekyll, or but remembered him as the mountain bandit remembers the cavern in which he conceals himself from persuit. Jekyll had more than a father’s interest; Hyde had more of a son’s indifference

Apr 122010

GogolHAPPY THE WAYFARER who, aftyer a long, boring  journey with its cold, slush, dirt, sleepy stationmasters, clanking bells, repairs, altercations, coachmen, blacksmiths, and all sorts of scoundrels of the road, sees at last the familiar roof with its lights rushing to meet him, and before him stand familiar rooms, the joyful shout of his people running to meet him, the noise and scampering of children, and soothing soft speech, interupted by burning kisses with the power to wipe out all that is mournful from the memory. Happy the family man who has such a corner, but woe to the bacheler!

Gogol by Repin

Feb 092010

book cover of Bruce Robinson's Paranoia in the Launderette

Suddenly her door was open. She snatched a brassiere in mid-flight and had it down in her sack before I’d even focused on it. The sheer size of the thing dragged my eyes back into her machine to see if there was anything else as big going round. We spotted one at the same time, and out came a harness that may well have had Dunlop written on it.

Jan 252010
The Third Policeman

Some savage faculty of observation told him that most of the respectable and estimable people usually had a lot of books in their houses

Jan 172010

Diderot

After all, I don’t invent any of these scandalous tales myself, I stick to the job of carrier. They say that a few days ago, at five o’clock in the morning, a furious din was heard: all the bells were jangling and there were broken and muffled cries of a man being strangled. ‘Help, help! I’m suffocating, I’m dying.’ These cries came from the master’s room. Help arrives. That huge creature of ours, who was quite out of her mind and had lost all idea of time and place, as happens at such a moment, was still going at full speed, lifting herself up on her hands and dropping on old Casual Parts a weight of two to three hundred pounds with all the violent animation that frantic enjoyment can give. It was very difficult to extricate him. What a fantistic idea for a little hammer to put itself under a heavy anvil!

Jan 132010

hunter-thompson-rum-diary

“At this time, I shared a dark suspician that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles – a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other – that kept me going”

Dec 152009

He’s the kind of guy i wish could have been my dad, because had he been I probably wouldn’t be fucked up, probably wouldn’t be an alcoholic. But I’m not blaming anybody for my boozing. I blame my mouth and the French for that.

Oct 062009

Diderot

There’s nobody who likes to speak more than a man with a stammer and

nobody likes walking more than a man with a limp

Apr 282009

Correcting the proofs of a play is an exremely fatiguing business. The upper story in my head was full of noise and movement that prevented me from enjoying the lower storey, where a secure and stable peace reigned.

Mar 302009

The master leapt from his saddle, left his companions and ran to the hillside, black cloak flapping over the ground behind him. He looked at the city.  For the first few moments a tremor of sadness crept over his heart, but it soon changed to a delicious excitement, the gypsy’s thrill of the open road.