Drake: “I haven’t written anything serious in a year.”

Graylyn: “It’s just because everyone’s waiting for you to say something now and you can’t do it without saying goodbye to who you were. You just have to choose something. Artists have to choose. I did it years ago and after that I never slowed down!”

Drake: “Gray, you did that because your family was supporting you, and because you’re a painter. You’re not confronting the world, you’re seducing them. I can’t do anything but shock them. You can use all your experiences to paint. I can’t use any of mine. I can’t write a word about sex without worrying about what your parents will say. I can’t write anything about the government without my father breathing down my neck. I can’t even afford to think about the government because I’ll come up with something that will piss him off and I’ll have to go around for a week keeping myself from writing it.”

Graylyn: “So keep it a secret. I kept lots of things a secret. I painted everything my parents told me I wasn’t allowed to. I showed it to you and the Sickies. Later I went back I found a way to compromise.”

Drake: “But that’s what’s killing me, Gray. I am allowed to write whatever I want. Father told me he knows children in my position get disgusted all the time. He’s going to let me get away with anything, and because he’s going to do that nothing I say is going to mean anything. He’s going to allow me just enough rebellion to feel open-minded, and then he’s going to yank my chain the way he always does, and everybody in the world is going to know it. “Hello world, I’m a new writer of the ruling class and I have permission from my father to write all about sex and corruption but really I’m just a sideshow freak like Brett Easton Ellis. That’s already come up for me, you know. One of the professors I met was telling me I could be serious, and he used Ellis as an example.”

Graylyn: “Okay, so you don’t have enough now. Just wait. Be patient.”

Drake: “Gray, I can’t do it. I can’t just be patient. I have to make a break.”