"We don't have games on K-PAX," he replied. "We don't need them. Nor what you call 'jokes,'" he added, scrutinizing a dried fig. "I've noticed that human beings laugh a lot, even at things that aren't funny. I was puzzled by this at first until I understood how sad your lives really are." [p140]
While he masticated I carefully proceeded. [p141]
He vacillates a lot. [p141 - swayes from side to side]
"Nothing you humans come up with surprises me anymore." [p142]
"Are you kidding? Schools are a total waste of time. They try to teach you a bunch of crap."
"Like what?"
"Like how great america is, better than any other country, how you have to have wars to protect 'freedoms,' all kinds of junk like that." [p143]
"Does he get good grades?"
"A's and b's. He should do better. He sleeps too much." [p146 - a bit like me]
"You humans consider yourselves the smartest of the EARTH beings. Am I right?"
"Yes."
"Then obviously the other beings speak much simpler languages that yours, right?"
"Well--"...
"So if you're so smart, and their languages are so simple, how come you can't communicate with them?" He waited for an answer. Unfortunately, I didn't have one. [p150]
"How are you feeling, Ernie?"
"Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful." I had never seen a smile quite like his. It was positively beatific.
"What happened for God's sake?"
"My good friend Howie just about strangled me to death." ... "That old son-of-a-bitch. I love him."
"Love him? He tried to kill you!"
"No he didn't. He made me think he tried to kill me. Oh, it was fantastic. I was asleep. You know, with my hands tied and everything? he wrapped somthing around my neck - a handkerchief or something - and tightened it up and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it."
...
"He taught me a lesson I'll never forget."
...
"That dying is nothing to fear. In fact it's quite pleasant."
"How so?"
"Well, you've heard that old adage - when you die your life passes before your eyes? Well, it does! ... It was just like living my whole childhood over again! ... All those memories - I never realized what a wonderful thign childhood is until I got the chance to relive it like that." [p152-3]
She was shocked by all the belching and farting... [p153]
There are two probes available forpenetrating the carpace of hysterical amnesia; each has its proponents, each ash its place. The first is sodium pentothal, also called "truth serum". A reasonably safe treatment, it has met with some success in difficult cases... Hypnosis, in experienced hands, offers the same possibilities, but without potential risk of side effects. With either method events long forgotten are often recalled with amazingly vivid clarity. [p124]
My purpose in using hypnosis in prot's case was to uncover the traumatic event which led to his hysterical amnesia and delusion. [p125]
Prot looked at me and smiled brightly. "When do we begin?" he said.
"It's already over."
"Ah. The old 'fastest gun in the west' routine." [p132]
He had his notebook out; he wanted me to tell him how hypnosis worked. I spent the rest of the hour trying to explain something I didn't fully understand myself. He seemed a little dissapointed. [p132]
...forcing him to relive that terrible moment prematurely could be devastating, and cause him to withdraw even further into his protective shell. [p134]
"Ve haff arrrr vays, mein Mádchen." [p135]
She ran back and kissed me on the mouth (almost) before dashing out. I felt about thriteen years old again. [p136]
"Why Sweden?" she wanted to know.
"Because it's the country most like K-PAX."
The subject then turned to those human beings who seemed most like K-PAXians to him. Here is what he said: Henry Thoreau, Mohandas Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, John Lennon, and Jane Goodall.
"Can you imagine a world full of Schweitzers?" she hooted...
Then she said something I had been wondering myself: "You know what else? I think he can talk to animals!" [p137]
He had obviously not bathed in weeks or even months. A blizzard of dandruff snowed from his head and drifted onto his shoulders. His teeth seemed to be covered with lichen. [p139]
