the mean reds

“‘Listen. You know those days when you’ve got the mean reds?’
    ‘Same as the blues?’
    ‘No,’ she said slowly. ‘No, the blues are because you’re getting fat or maybe it’s been raining too long. You’re sad, that’s all. But the mean reds are horrible. You’re afraid and you sweat like hell, bu you don’t know what you’re afraid of. Except something bad is going to happen, only you don’t know what it is. You’ve had that feeling?’
    ‘Quite often. Some people call it angst.’
    ‘All right. Angst. But what do you do about it?’”

—Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1958.

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