There are a lot of people who don’t grow limp with hatred when they’re kept waiting. I know a whole bunch of people who don’t consider the concept of fifteen minutes time at all. So if they they’ll meet you at 11:00 and they show up at 11:25, they apologise (if they remember) for being ten minutes late - the other fifteen minutes never existed and there is some sort of common understanding among most people that those fifteen minutes are a grace period. Since I’ve started carrying a book everywhere, even to something like the Academy Awards, I’ve had a much easier time of it, and the bitterness that shortens your life has been headed off at the pass by the wonderful Paperback. Light, fitting easily into most purses, the humble paperback has saved a lot of relationships for me that would have ended in bloodshed.
Slow Days, Fast Company, Eve Babitz













