bbook:

Because my grandparents on my mother’s side lived in Brooklyn, I would go to New York City and I would see these things. And it scared the hell out of me. In the subway I remember a wind from the approaching train, then a smell and sound. I could taste the horror every time I went to New York.

My grandfather owned an apartment building in Brooklyn with no kitchens. A man was cooking an egg on an iron—that really worried me. And every night he unscrewed his car aerial so gangs wouldn’t break it off. I could just feel fear in the air. It was great fuel for future fires.