Harshita Prasad

“But taking wrong trains, encountering unexpected delays, and suffering occasional mechanical breakdowns are inevitable to any journey really worth taking. One learns to get oneself turned around and headed the right way.”
― Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me

“I cannot take a subway without marveling at the lottery logic that brings together a random sampling of humanity for one minute or two, testing us for kindness and compatibility. Is that not what civility is?”
― Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me

“In the middle of the night: "Wouldn't it be nice if we could dream together?" O whispers.”
― Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me

“But if pressed, I’d have to say that what I love most about the subways of New York is what they do not do. One may spend a lifetime looking back—whether regretfully or wistfully, with shame or fondness or sorrow—and thinking how, given the chance, things might have been done differently. But when you enter a subway car and the doors close, you have no choice but to give yourself over to where it is headed. The subway only goes one way: forward.”
― Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me