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"Listen as though I'm the voice of God or an angel talking to you. Telling you this room doesn't matter, this night doesn't matter. You're not inconsequential or a junkie. You're a bright young reporter with a point of view. There are stories that need to be told. If things ever get bad again, these are the words you'll hear in your mind like a tape playing over and over, like a song stuck in your brain. These words will hold you up and carry you. "They are your lifeline." That's a free-baser I befriended for a few days at the drսg den. He told me to get my shit together and then he Richard Pryor'd in front of me. Everyone scrambled but I stuck around, watched him burn. What's always confused me was that... You know, he said those words to me, and he was already all burnt up. Figured I'd conflated the two events. But I didn't. Because it was you. I destroyed two marriages. I fuckеd up two daughters. But I stayed a journalist. I... I was never so lost I couldn't hold down a job.