Black Swans: Stories

by Eve Babitz

an obsession needs to be nourished with acts and deeds.”

Anything difficult, as far as I’ve been able to determine, seems to work, and anything easy is just kidding yourself.

“Well, in those days we thought we’d live forever. We thought the more we had to regret, the better. Besides, we didn’t believe death applied to us personally.”

I didn’t like being so sane anymore, I wanted something wilder.

But the trouble with life is, just when you think you’re having a happy ending, things are changing, because there are no endings except death.

But then, if I did all the things I thought about, I’d never get out of bed.

And it’s true I was lucky to have someone who at least said all the corny things I was dying to say but couldn’t, for fear—once he was gone—of being filled with more regrets than I already was.

“I feel like I’ve been doing the right thing for so long, if I don’t—I don’t know—do something pretty soon, something stupid, I’m not going to make it.”

I always think something to look forward to is usually better than the thing itself. At least looking forward to something gives you the will to live.

Even at my most drunken—even in blackouts—I never accidentally woke up in bed with a woman friend’s ex, no matter how broken up he insisted they were.