The First I Heard Of The Beach

Waking Was The Most Reliable Part Of A Dream, As Built Into Dreams As Death Is To Life. You Dream, You Wake: You Live, You Die.

Vietnam, Me Love You Long Time. All Day, All Night, Me Love You Long Time. (...) Dropping Acid On The Mekong Delta, Smoking Grass Through A Rifle Barrel, Flying On A Helicopter With Opera Blasting Out Of Loudspeakers, Tracer-fire And Paddy-field Scenery, The Smell Of Napalm In The Morning. Long Time.

Uh... What Can I Say? Made Money. Given A Launch Pad For A Working Life. Set A Precedent I Had No Interest In Following. Created Expectations That I Was Not Cut-out To Match. Disappointed Virtually All Of My Readers Subsequently. But I Like What I've Done, And I Stand By It All.

You Fish, Swim, Eat, Laze Around, And Everyone's So Friendly. It's Such Simple Stuff, But... If I Could Stop The World And Restart Life, Put The Clock Back, I Think I'd Restart It Like This. For Everyone.

I Knew My Affection For The Philippines Was Equally As Telling: A Democracy On Paper, Apparently Well Ordered, Regularly Subverted By Irrational Chaos. A Place Where I'd Felt Instantly At Home.