The New York Trilogy

The telephone was not his favorite object, and more than once he had considered getting rid of his. What he disliked most of all was its tyranny. Not only did it have the power to interrupt him against his will, but inevitably he would give in to its command

By wandering aimlessly, all places became equal, and it no longer mattered where he was.

If this is how you treat your friends, says Blue, then lucky for me I’m not one of your enemies.

Very funny.

That’s right, I’m the original funny man. You can always count on a lot of laughs when I’m around.

And the mask—aren’t you going to ask me about the mask?

I don’t see why. If you want to wear that thing, it’s not my problem.

That’s right, I’m the original funny man. You can always count on a lot of laughs when I’m around.

And the mask—aren’t you going to ask me about the mask?

I don’t see why. If you want to wear that thing, it’s not my problem.

But you have to look at it, don’t you?

now is the moment that Blue stands up from his chair, puts on his hat, and walks through the door. And from this moment on, we know nothing.

We always talk about trying to get inside a writer to understand his work better. But when you get right down to it, there’s not much to find in there—at least not much that’s different from what you’d find in anyone else.

Ghosts.
Yes, there are ghosts all around us.

The last sentence of the red notebook reads: “What will happen when there are no more pages in the red notebook?”

Baudelaire: Il me semble que je serais toujours bien là où je ne suis pas. In other words: It seems to me that I will always be happy in the place where I am not. Or, more bluntly: Wherever I am not is the place where I am myself. Or else, taking the bull by the horns: Anywhere out of the world.

But beggars and performers make up only a small part of the vagabond population. They are the aristocracy, the elite of the fallen. Far more numerous are those with nothing to do, with nowhere to go.