“Skyscraper National Park”

“there i was in late middle age, cut loose in a thoroughly looted, bankrupt nation whose assets had been sold off to foreigners, a nation swamped by unchecked plagues and superstition and illiteracy and hypnotic tv, with virtually no health services for the poor. where to go? what to do?”

“Oh, a lion hunter in the jungle dark,And a sleeping drunkardup in central park, and a Chinese dentistand a British queenAll fit togetherin the same machine. Nice, nice,such very differentpeople in the same device!”

“Why throw money at problems? That is what money is for.Should the nation's wealth be redistributed? It has been and continues to be redistributed to a few people in a manner strikingly unhelpful.”

“Aside from battles, the history of nations seemed to consist of nothing but powerless old poops like myself, heavily medicated and vaguely beloved in the long ago, coming to kiss the boots of young psychopaths.”

“Oh, a sleeping drunkardUp in Central Park,And a lion-hunterIn the jungle dark,And a Chinese dentist, And a British queen--All fit together In the same machine. Nice, nice, very nice;Nice, nice, very nice;Nice, nice, very nice--So many different peopleIn the same device.”

“As an old, old man, Trout would be asked by Dr. Thor Lembrig, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, if he feared the future. He would give this reply: 'Mr. Secretary-General, it is the past which scares the bejesus out of me.”