“In the years that followed I worked as much as I could filling my empty hours with theatres and alcohol. I found I had grown to like the taste. Maybe that was a lie. I never liked the taste except maybe of whisky. I drank it none the less and it numbed any feelings I had for a time. In my sober hours I was introduced to ‘The Order of the Red Dragon’ a little at a time.”

“You drink your whiskey,I’ll drink my wine.Later when we’re fevered and tipsywe’ll make savage love divine.Until then,let’s swim in the warm, opal sea of each other.Crash a few innocent waves,skinny dip, laugh and get lost in thoseblood-pumping hearts,and for a timeforget all our broken parts.”

“Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whiskey.”

“Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither.”

“I see things in windows and I say to myself that I want them. I want them because I want to belong. I want to be liked by more people, I want to be held in higher regard than others. I want to feel valued, so I say to myself to watch certain shows. I watch certain shows on the television so I can participate in dialogues and conversations and debates with people who want the same things I want. I want to dress a certain way so certain groups of people are forced to be attracted to me. I want to do my hair a certain way with certain styling products and particular combs and methods so that I can fit in with the In-Crowd. I want to spend hours upon hours at the gym, stuffing my body with what scientists are calling ‘superfoods’, so that I can be loved and envied by everyone around me. I want to become an icon on someone’s mantle. I want to work meaningless jobs so that I can fill my wallet and parentally-advised bank accounts with monetary potential. I want to believe what’s on the news so that I can feel normal along with the rest of forever. I want to listen to the Top Ten on Q102, and roll my windows down so others can hear it and see that I am listening to it, and enjoying it. I want to go to church every Sunday, and pray every other day. I want to believe that what I do is for the promise of a peaceful afterlife. I want rewards for my ‘good’ deeds. I want acknowledgment and praise. And I want people to know that I put out that fire. I want people to know that I support the war effort. I want people to know that I volunteer to save lives. I want to be seen and heard and pointed at with love. I want to read my name in the history books during a future full of clones exactly like me. The mirror, I’ve noticed, is almost always positioned above the sink. Though the sink offers more depth than a mirror, and mirror is only able to reflect, the sink is held in lower regard. Lower still is the toilet, and thought it offers even more depth than the sink, we piss and shit in it. I want these kind of architectural details to be paralleled in my every day life. I want to care more about my reflection, and less about my cleanliness. I want to be seen as someone who lives externally, and never internally, unless I am able to lock the door behind me. I want these things, because if I didn’t, I would be dead in the mirrors of those around me. I would be nothing. I would be an example. Sunken, and easily washed away.”

“Love makes the world go round? Not at all. Whiskey makes it go round twice as fast.”