“Sit down on your ass, or what's left of it after four years in the navy.”

“home is where your ass is and if you want to move you move your ass the first step is learning to change homes with someone else and have someone else's ass.”

“Whether you sniff it smoke it eat it or shove it up your ass the result is the same: addiction.”

“For the last four years of her life, Mother was in a nursing home called Chateins in St. Louis ... [S]ix months before she died I sent a Mother's Day card. There was a horrible, mushy poem in it. I remember feeling "vaguely guilty.”

“You know a real friend?Someone you know will look after your cat after you are gone.”

“He kisses the D.S.'s hand thrusting his fingers into his mouth (the D.S. must feel his toothless gums) complaining he has lost teeth "inna thervith". "Please Boss Man. I'll wipe your ass, I'll wash out your dirty condoms, I'll polish your shoes with the oil on my nose....”

“And there are my cats, engaged in a ritual that goes back thousands of years, tranquilly licking themselves after the meal. Practical animals, they prefer to have others provide the food ... some of them do. There must have been a split between the cats who accepted domestication and those who did not.”