If I had sharp claws I'd get on all fours. And scratch your back for free.

My back is so scar-tissued that you couldn't find a place to slip a knife.

It is not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw.

The ache that cuts through me is sharper than the blade that cut through my back. It’s like losing Mama all over again.

Shave my face with a rusty razor!

I scraped my heel against this black claw: I wanted to peel off some of the bark. For no reason at all, out of defiance, to make the bare pink appear absurd on the tanned leather: to play with the absurdity of the world. But, when I drew my heel back, I saw that the bark was still black.

Be wary of people who stab you in the back repeatedly & then behave like they're the ones who have been wronged. It's best to avoid them.

One must scratch that part of the body or mind that itches.

Robin Hood: Watch my back!
Achoo: Yo' back just got punched twice.

Ouch! What are you doing, Karl, you broke my skull!

'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' was the basis of policy where jobs and contracts were concerned ... the slum owner and agent could be depended upon to create the conditions which produce disease; the doctor would then get the job of attending the sick, the chemist would be needed to supply drugs, the parson to pray, and when, between them all, the victims died the undertaker was on hand to bury them.

I marked myself once with a knife. I was disappearing into the adolescent sea of rage and destruction. The mark of pain assured me of my own reality. The cut could speak. It had a voice that cried out when I could not make a sound in my defense. I never made such a mark again. Instead I chose to slash art onto canvas, pencil marks onto paper, and when I could no longer carry the burden of history, I found other openings. I found stories. (p91)

I’d better get back to work. It’s like butting my head against a stone wall, but somebody’s got to keep butting, if only for the sake of other people’s morale.

A scratch is nothing but the back-cueing that you hear in your ear before you push it out to the crowd. All you have to know is mathematically how many times to scratch it and when to let it go — when certain things will enhance the record you're listening to. For instance, if you're playing a record with drums--horns would sound nice to enhance it so you get a record with horns and slip it in at certain times.