Overnight to Many Distant Cities

"Food, said Goethe, is the topmost taper on the golden candelabrum of existence."

"Inside the abandoned houses subway trains rushed in both directions and genuine nameless animals ate each other with ghastly fervor—"

"The funniest thing in the world is a general trying on a nickname."

"On another evening, as we were on our way to dinner, I kicked the kid with carefully calibrated force as we were crossing the Pont Mirabeau, she had been pissy all day, driving us crazy, her character improved instantly, wonderfully, this is a tactic that can be used exactly once."

"Walking down West Broadway on a Saturday afternoon. Barking art caged in the high white galleries, don’t go inside or it’ll get you, leap into your lap and cover your face with kisses. Some goes to the other extreme, snarls and shows its brilliant teeth. O art I won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt me. Citizens parading, plump-faced and bone-faced, lightly clad. A young black boy toting a Board of Education trombone case. A fellow with oddly-cut hair the color of marigolds and a roll of roofing felt over his shoulder. Bishop in the crowd, thirty dollars in his pocket in case he has to buy a pal a drink. Into a gallery because it must be done. The artist’s hung twenty EVERLAST heavy bags in rows of four, you’re invited to have a bash. People are giving the bags every kind of trouble. Bishop, unable to resist, bangs one with his fabled left, and hurts his hand. Bloody artists."

"The English, Goethe said in parting, are the shining brown varnish on the sad chiffonier of civilization."