It's not like I was an alkie or anything. Alcohol is for cleaning needles — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“Being a junkie, when you broke it down, was nothing more than a crazed day job.” — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
I used to say, for me, writing was like walking a high wire, and heroin made me forget there was no net.… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
For me there was never a lot of glamor involved in being a junkie, it was about trying to hide the puke… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“People always ask, "What's the worst thing heroin drove you to do?". I always answer, "showing up on Maury .” — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
If you're an asshole, you have an excuse for being an asshole because you're a junkie. But then once you give up… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
You can't really compare hells. But I suppose the hell of being strung out on another person's addictive behavior is its own… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“Booze has a different effect when you're, like, ten. Its doesn't round out the edges so much as wash you right out… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“The point is, everything, bad or good, boils back to the decade on the needle, and the years before that imbibing everything… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
The traditional dictionary definition of the difference is that an alcoholic will steal your wallet in a blackout, come to, and apologize… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“Can you understand this? Shooting dope is all about getting warm and fuzzy. Dependably so. But the Daddy-rush... Forget about it! I've… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“This was, I sometimes thought, the last gift my father gave me. And the best: His death stood out as the supreme-o excuse for… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
I think there's a phenomenon of people who want to be around something that seems "dangerous." It makes them feel more real. — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
I always figured I myself would never be lucky enough to die, I'd just live on and on in this increasingly dreary spiral. — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“Not until I stopped doing drugs altogether did I feel like a man. Not until I walked out of that fire did I have… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“Not doing something crude right off is about as close as a guy like me ever gets to class.” — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
A waft of sweet hash drifted by, and I wanted to float after it like Wimpy levitating at the scent of a hamburger. — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
I always tell myself, when I remember the non-stop self-generated hell party that used to be my life, I wouldn't be here if I… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
My own theory is that people are just so desperate for somebody they can feel better than, in America. Now that everyone's going broke… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“...with enough rock in your system, you could hear every noise in the universe.” — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
I think that a lot of people are in love with stress. It's the dirty little secret of Western civilization. People often mistake stress… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
“There are stories you don't want to tell, and there are stories that scald your brainpan right down to the tongue at the mere… — Jerry Stahl Copy Share Image
