‘The insularity of Texas has always entertained travellers, coupled as it is with extreme technical sophistication, and Texans of course love to make the most of it.’
It was like entering another, and more nationalistic, country – like entering France, say, out of Switzerland. The moment I crossed the Red River out of Oklahoma, the nationality of Texas assaulted me almost xenophobically, and I seemed to be passing into another sensibility, another historical ex…
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‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
An essay on Welsh identity from Allegorizings, the final book from the late Jan Morris.
‘The sea runs through our house – not literally, of course, but metaphorically, or perhaps emotionally.’
‘Shame and regret are certainly not the same things: je ne regrette rien, like charity, can cover a multitude of sins.’
‘When shit like this happens, people don’t walk out on fifteen-year marriages.’
‘He is wrong, though. You didn’t read poetry at all. He had wanted you to read poetry but you didn’t.’
