There are some whom you reserve for the real emergency, knowing that you can rely on them, and when the emergency comes and you go to them you are cruelly deceived. There isn't a soul on earth who can be relied on absolutely. For a quick, generous touch the man who you met only recently, the one who scarcely knows you, is usually a pretty safe bet. Old friends are the worst: they are heartless and incorrigible.


Henry Miller, Sexus, page 60