“nervestwitching in the sheets --to face the sunlight again,that's clearlytrouble.I like the city better when theneon lights are going andthe nudies dance on top of thebarto the mauling music.I'm under this sheetthinking.me nerves are hampered byhistory --the most memorable concern of mankindis the guys it takes toface the sunlight again.love begins at the meeting of twostrangers. love for the world isimpossible. I'd rather stay in bedand sleep.dizzied by the days and the streets and the yearsI pull the sheets to my neck.I turn my ass to the wall.I hate the mornings more thanany man.”

“You know I love to spend my mornings, like sunlight dancing on your skin”

“like sunlight under their skins, they want to be loved" from the poem STAY in RidingTheEscalator”

“my grandpa and grandma aren't like me. They're more like sheets drying outside on a breezy day--they change directions without any fuss. But me, if I was a sheet and the wind blew me, I'd never stop flapping.”

“In the old days, before I was married, or knew a lot of women, I would just pull down all the shades and go to bed for three or four days. I'd get up to shit. I'd eat a can of beans, go back to bed, just stay there for three or four days. Then I'd put on my clothes and I'd walk outside, and the sunlight was brilliant, and the sounds were great. I felt powerful, like a recharged battery. But you know the first bring-down? The first human face I saw on the sidewalk, I lost half my charge right there.”

“My love has eyes blue as the sky.Her warm, bright smile makes me want to tryTo give her the world,And when she's curledUp in my arms where I can feel her touch,I realize again that I love her so much.My world has turned from black to white.Kissing in starlight, basking in sunlight, dancing at midnight.'~John's poem for Belle”