:45:00
good work is possible without it.
:45:02
Hmm.
:45:03
Well, me, I just enjoy
making things up.
:45:08
Yes, sir. Escape.
:45:11
It's when I can't write
and escape myself,
:45:14
that I want to rip my head off
:45:17
and run screaming through the street
:45:19
with my balls
in a fruit picker's pail.
:45:22
Hmm.
:45:23
This will sometimes help.
:45:24
That doesn't help anything, Bill.
:45:27
I've never found that
to help my writing.
:45:29
Your writing?
:45:31
Son, have you ever heard
the story of Solomon's mammy?
:45:35
Barton, you should read this.
:45:37
I think it's Bill's finest,
:45:38
or among his finest, anyway.
:45:40
So now I'm supposed to roll over
:45:42
and get my belly scratched?
:45:43
Bill.
:45:44
Look, uh...
:45:45
maybe it's none of my business,
:45:47
but don't you think
a man with your talent...
:45:50
your first obligation
is to your gift?
:45:52
Shouldn't you be doing
whatever you have to
:45:55
to work again?
:45:56
What would that be?
:45:57
I don't know.
:45:59
But with that drink,
:46:00
you're cutting yourself
off from your gift
:46:02
and your fellow man
:46:04
and everything your art is about.
:46:06
Oh, no, son.
:46:07
I'm building a levee--
:46:09
gulp by gulp,
brick by brick--
:46:12
Putting up a levee
:46:13
to keep that raging river of manure
:46:15
from lapping at my door.
:46:17
Maybe you better, too, Barton,
:46:18
before you get buried
under his manure.
:46:21
My honey pretends
to be impatient with me,
:46:23
but she'll put up with anything.
:46:25
Not anything, Bill.
:46:26
Don't test me.
:46:28
You're lucky she puts up with you
as much as she does.
:46:32
Maybe to a schoolboy's eyes.
:46:33
People who know about
the human heart, though,
:46:36
maybe they'd say,
"Bill over here,
:46:38
he gives his honey love,
:46:39
and she pays him back with pity,
:46:42
the basest coin there is."
:46:43
Stop it, Bill.
:46:45
Gone are the days
:46:47
When my heart was young and gay
:46:51
Gone are my friends
:46:54
From the cotton fields away
:46:59
Gone from the earth