“And then they lay back with their arms as pillows and looked up at the milky stars and talked.

‘You look at those things long enough and you’re knocked out,’ said Buddy, staring astonishedly at the stars. ‘They’re so far off, you know’’

‘What do you expect!’

‘I mean they’re so far, so far gone! Deep! You look up there long enough and it’s just like looking into a big hole, you’re afraid you’ll fall in it—like when you drink too much.’”

—Jack Kerouac, The Town and the City, 1950.