Streetwise

This is life in the time of mistakes. I had been polluted by the night of the streets. Even the decent crazies on the streets have disappeared.

trap was being set for me – that was my first thought. But I decided to move into the hotel anyway, spurred by curiosity and a devil-may-care recklessness.

They don’t use firewood for heating. And they always bolt even their windows. And every door has an eye in the middle of it, like the eye of a dead fish. Who can bring himself to knock on their doors?

Whenever I’m away from my friends, I find that I feel closer to them and they become closer to me. When people are together all the time, they can’t be bothered with each other. Most people see barriers even when there are no barriers there.’

A person is how he ends his life, not how he begins it

A small snake, about half a metre long, was crossing in front of us.

If we want to conquer the idea of death, the important thing is not to imagine ourselves as dead. A person’s destiny lies within himself. Don’t depend on anyone and don’t expect anyone to console you. Imagine that you’re immortal. The only thing that defeats death is a love of life.’

‘When men are on their own, they can be saints, but put them with women and they become the very devil

Most of the time we – Fermin Vito and myself – sat on our own at one of the four tables in the small restaurant’s forecourt area.

A story from Morocco, by Ahmed Abdeslam el Baqali, was the first thing I’d read by a Moroccan writer.