The Bonfire of the Vanities: A Novel

Strips of fluorescent lights struggled against the gloominess of the space.

In well-reared girls and boys, guilt and the instinct to obey the rules are reflexes, ineradicable ghosts in the machine.

Cynicism was such a cowardly form of superiority.

You know the way they can take a dog, a house pet, like a police dog that’s been fed and pampered all its life, and train it to be a vicious watchdog?” “I’ve heard of it,” said Killian. “I’ve seen it done,” said Quigley. “I saw it done when I was on the force.” “Well, then you know the principle,” said Sherman. “They don’t alter that dog’s personal

In this sad moldering little room were seven other men, seven other organisms, hundreds of pounds of tissue and bone, breathing, pumping blood, burning calories, processing nutrients, filtering out contaminants and toxins, transmitting neural impulses, seven warm grisly unpleasant animals rooting about, for pay, in the entirely public cavity he use

In this little room full of people he was suffering the pangs of men whose egos lose their virginity—as happens when they overhear for the first time a beautiful woman’s undiluted, full-strength opinion of their masculine selves.