‘What is the point of rising early? I congratulate myself if I'm out of bed before midday.’
Where was I? Yes, it was a calculation I made to while away an idle moment in a busy week, just the other day, in fact. As a man, an elderly man, a man who—I say this without vanity—could be considered to be in his mid-sixties (though I am in fact seventy-five) I thought this was an interesting …
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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.
’I once heard a theory about this town, this place where we work and wrangle, where we swindle and swive‘.
Granta 100: One Hundred’s guest-editor on the challenge of putting together a milestone issue.
‘On one of the sunniest of bright May mornings, Senator Dom Liceu Maximiliano Lobo needlessly ran his comb through his neat goatee and ordered his chauffeur to pull into the side of the road.’
‘My sisters, I am sure, were immune to suicide’s powerful contagion.’
‘Nothing has changed, Edgar said. What new event is written into their history? None. Where is their future? Nowhere. Are they against or for progress? It was dark when Edgar took the box outside down to the rubbish heap and sprinkled the dead moths upon the ashes of the diseased pawpaw.’ Janet Frame on an unsettling natural process.
