“Remember, your history is a total mystery. Sometimes it seems that a lot is happening in a short period of time – and, sometimes it seems that nothing is happening for a long period of time – it’s the same thing.”

“Another thing is, people lose perspective. It is a cultural trait in America to think in terms of very short time periods. My advice is: learn history. Take responsibility for history. Recognise that sometimes things take a long time to change. If you look at your history in this country, you find that for most rights, people had to struggle. People in this era forget that and quite often think they are entitled, and are weary of struggling over any period of time”

“Sometimes the little times you don't think are anything while they're happening turn out to be what marks a whole period of your life.”

“War is sometimes described as long periods of boredom punctuated by short moments of excitement. History is often similar, if rather safer.”

“Time, Eddie had decided during this period, was in large part created by external events. When a lot of interesting shit was happening, time seemed to go by fast. If you got stuck with nothing but the usual boring shit, it slowed down. And when everything stopped happening, time apparently quit altogether. Just packed up and went to Coney Island. Weird but true.”

“You can change the exterior in a fairly short period of time, but the heart takes a whole lot longer.”