Sex is about the only grown-up thing I know how to do

[...] what I like about sex is that I can lose myself in it entirely. Sex, in fact, is the most absorbing activity I have discovered in adulthood. When I was a child I use to feel this way about all sort of things - Mecano, The jungle Book, Biggles, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, the ABC Minors... I could forget where I was, the time of the day, who I was with. Sex is the only thing I've found like that as a grown-up, give or take the old film: books are no longer like that once you are out of your teens, and I've certainly never found it in my work. All the horrible pre-sex self-consciousness drains out of me, and I forget were I am, the time of the day ... and yes, I forget who I'm with, for the time being. Sex is about the only grown-up thing I know how to do; it's weird, then, that it's the only thing which can make me feel like a ten-year-old.

Hornby, Nick. High fidelity. Pag. 100. Penguin Books, 2000.

Have you got any soul?

'Have you got any soul?' a woman asks the next afternoon. That depends, I feel like saying; some days yes, some days no. A few days ago I was right out; now I've got loads, too much, more than I can handle. I which I could spread it bit more evenly, I want to tell her, get a better balance, but I can't seem to get it sorted. I can see she wouldn't be interested in my internal stock control problem though, so I simply point to where I keep the soul I have, right by the exit, just next to the blues.

Hornby, Nick. High fidelity. Pag. 59. Penguin Books, 2000.