The Nothing

by Hanif Kureishi

Narcissism is our religion. The selfie stick is our cross, and we must carry it everywhere. Slowly I grasp mine and raise it.

Pain is such pleasure, and pleasure such pain.

That we have created a world of billionaires and paupers. He informs me that money is the devil, and that the financial class uses debt to control the population. The cannibalism of capitalism, the emptiness of democracy and hyper-neo-liberal alienation, commodification and stupidity; the virus of money and the way the poor bust their balls to save the financial class – he lays it out for my benefit.

Sex is like art: if you know what you’re doing, you don’t know what you’re doing.

Thoughts, unconverted into words, can become monstrous, like heavy metal in your head.

Charm is slow. It makes time. It’s languid and confident.