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The Ask QUOTES

The Ask QUOTES

21 " I needed to talk to Vargina, to straighten this out, but felt suddenly faint, headed for the deli across the street. Just standing in the vicinity of comfort food was comfort. The schizophrenic glee with which you cold load your plastic shell with spinach salad, pork fried rice, turkey with cranberry, chicken with pesto, curried yams, clams casino, breadsticks, and yogurt, pay for it by the pound, this farm feed for human animals in black chinos and pleated chinos, animals whose enclosure included the entire island of Manhattan, this sensation I treasured deeply. "

― Sam Lipsyte , The Ask

22 " Lee was my father’s lawyer, a mensch. But he’s been very sick. Cancer. Pancreatic.” “That’s one of the worst. A killer.” “Yes, the ones that kill you are definitely the worst. [...] "

― Sam Lipsyte , The Ask

23 " One night in the House of Drinking and Smoking we were victims of what I would later call a home invasion. I didn’t know the term then. I think I learned it later, from a rap song, or a movie based loosely on a newspaper columnist’s fear of a rap song. "

― Sam Lipsyte , The Ask

24 " A rich boy goes to college. He makes a lot of friends. They all think they are special and that they suffer in distinct ways, but they are all hurtling down the same world-historical funnel. They will attempt to professionalize their passions, or else just get jobs. "

― Sam Lipsyte , The Ask

25 " Good. Now. Let’s talk our talk. Your beloved institution seems like it wants to step up to the next level. Be a culture player. Crank out all those smug nullities who can make the stylish, insipid, top-notch crap. Stuff we can jerk off to but that will also make us sorry, but not too sorry. Sexy sorry. Am I right? "

― Sam Lipsyte , The Ask