One wore a brown army-style sweater, extensively darned and full of holes. The darning was old and unraveling; it looked as if someone had once cared… - Robert Stone

The thing to do with embarrassment," he told the young American couple who seemed determined to engage him, "is work it all the way to humiliation.

And that was it, he thought. It was all a series of rooms one never found one's way out of. You had to be content with that, or die, or go completely crazy.

Hey, Cecil," Pablo said, "I want to ask you something, man. Promise you won't get pissed? What do you think is the use of me?"
"De use of you?" Cecil asked, incredulous.
"The use - you know. The use of me."
"Well now . . ." Cecil began. A throb of laughter trembled in his throat. "Dat be hard to say, you know."
"Cecil, I'm the first fucker in the world knows that. But right off ... what would you say the use of me was?"
"De use of you, mon? Same as everbody. Put one foot to front of de other. Match de dolluh wif de day."
"That's all?"
"Sure dat's all. Good times, hard times. Mos' certainly dat's all."
"Don't you think everybody got some special purpose?"
"Hey," Cecil demanded, "what I look like - a preacher, mon? Purpose of you and me to be buried in de ground and das hard enough to do. Be buried in de sweet ground and not in dat ocean." They drank their rum together.
"Dreamin' be de ruin of you, sailor. Be de ruin. Old chap, you too young to be worryin' after dose tings. Be burnin' out your mind."
"It is burning," Pablo said. "Burning out."
"Go to sleep, Pablo. Go upstairs and sleep it off, mon.