Southbound Rails
“Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football.” ― Albert Camus
"And I've seen it all. I've seen it all through the yellow windows of the evening train." ― Tom Waits
'Here she comes, Dearling - and not a moment too soon either. You know we haven't had a rush like this since the Fall of 1925 and we're unlikely to ever see that kind of a roustabout again, let me remind you. Oh my memory may be old and my mind half gone with cheap whiskey but I can tell the chiff from the chaff and the limes from the lemons. And ain't this one a beauty, Dearling? Let that one wash past you.' ― FJ Libenhaus
'Don't listen to that old man, sweetheart. He's as confused as you are. Listen to me instead. I'll get you there. I know about people, you see. I know what they need and and what they want. I stood on platform 10 for year and years and saw them all, coming and going and I did what I did. Just a pity I didn't mean anything I did, you know?' ― Caroline Kanjunas
'I watched them all on the trains and saw them dreamin'. Fuck them really. I was watchin' when they were not. Fuck them all. What I took was what I was given, you know? They stare into the clear air like they are out of their minds. I jus' took their heads and squatted there. Do what you gotta do to me. I was just accepting a fuckin' gift, son. You'd do it too.' ― Marlin Carson
'Psychologists vie to enumerate the facets of sociopathy. Joseph Newman argues that the sociopath has an attention bottleneck that allows him to focus only on one activity or train of thought, to the exclusion of others. Researchers, including Howard Kamler, say that the sociopath lacks not "moral" identity but self-identity altogether. Yet nowhere do I recognize myself more than in Hervey Cleckley's clinical profiles. In The Mask of Sanity, published in 1941, Cleckley distilled what he believed to be the 16 key behavioral characteristics that defined psychopathy. Most of these factors are still used today to diagnose sociopaths/psychopaths and others with antisocial disorders. (Psychopathy and sociopathy are terms with an intertwined clinical history, and they are now largely used interchangeably. The DSM excludes both, in favor of antisocial personality disorder.)
'I was not a victim of child abuse, and I am not a murderer or a criminal. I have never skulked behind prison walls; I prefer mine to be covered in ivy. I am an accomplished attorney and law professor, a well-respected young academic who regularly writes for law journals and advances legal theories. I donate 10 percent of my income to charity and teach Sunday school for the Mormon Church. I have a close circle of family and friends whom I love and who very much love me. Does this sound like you? Recent estimates say that one in every 25 people is a sociopath. But you're not a serial killer, never imprisoned? Most of us aren't. Only 20 percent of male and female prison inmates are sociopaths, although we are probably responsible for about half of all serious crimes committed. Nor are most sociopaths incarcerated. In fact, the silent majority of sociopaths live freely and anonymously, holding down jobs, getting married, having children. We are legion and diverse.' ― ME Thomas