“The city was the perfect place, it was... Heaven. And when I got here people said: who are you? But I thought they were asking where so I said, Heaven.’Melrose sucks his pen. ‘And that became your name.’‘It’s not my name. It’s just what people call me.”
“Babe had lots of looks but gradually she got stuck in the sixties, with hairspray and long dresses and fingernails and eyeliner. She became a more intense version of women who demonstrate whiteware products on television, taller with longer, darker hair and tighter wool suits and pointier shoes. I didn’t have any money to buy clothes then. It was the first time I’d admitted it to anyone. Babe felt sorry for me and took me out shoplifting.”
“You gamble, you believe in luck. Like if you're swimming, you believe in water. Right?”