"Waking up begins with saying 'am' and 'now.' That which has awoken then lies for a whole staring up at the ceiling and down into itself until it has recognised 'I', and therefrom deduced 'I am, I am now.' 'Here' comes next, and is at least negatively reassuring; because 'here,' this morning, is where it had expected to find itself; what's called 'at home.'"
"who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls,"