"Why don't you get a job, if you're so hungry?" Veda asked him.
Nicky poured a little mound of sugar on the table, and then hacked at it with a toothpick.
"Well, I'm basically lazy. I don't like to work," he said.
"And I'm trying to become educated. Have you noticed that no one who has a job in this city has time to read a book?"
He broke the toothpick into bits.
"I'm sure Manhattan Island sits at least a half-inch lower in the water under the weight of unread books on apartment shelves. I want to be the sort of guy that reads a book. A Renaissance Man."
"I think Renaissance men are supposed to do a lot of things, not nothing at all," said Veda.
