... rock musicians, colorful literary failures, pale headbangers, suavo archetypes with bandannas tied around their biceps, and starting way back in high school long dreamt of having affairs with long-haired guys named Scorch or Trevor or Rick who, even if they smelled unappealingly of cigarettes and booze, were part of the rebellious, 'zine-reading Dial B for Bum-in-Hand youth of today.

I needed money—Dad would have said I was broker than the Ten Commandments—so I went to get my old job back...

from the few hours we spend in prayer and the exercises of a pious life, the return is great and profitable

Only London's finest collection of comfortable, thumbable antiquarian books, I thought, as I watched him sink into a chair near the empty fireplace.