“I knew the goddamn trouble with me, I thought. Enough brains to see it and not enough guts to stand up to it. Thousands of us, millions of us, corrupted, rootless, career-ridden, good hearts and yellow bellies, living out our lives for the easy buck, the soft berth, indulging ourselves in the illusions that we can deal with filth without becoming the thing we touch. No wonder Beth wouldn’t have me. A hell, she called me, a heel, the biggest heel of all. ” The Harder They Fall, Budd Schulberg
