I am currently reading and/or listening to this fabulous book with my friend Silvia’s Gray House Book Club group, though I am not keeping up.
Why the Quote Appealed to Me
This quote echos the same hopeless, senseless lives that so many “have-nots” live today–those who see prison as maybe not “normal,” but no big deal. No reason to prepare for life–you just end up with nothing. Those who see cutting now as an adolescent rite of passage, drugs just cheap recreation and “getting over” the only thrill left. A weird sort of almost nihilism.
The Quote
They are always hostile, always hungry, always covered in spots from the sweets they consume to cheat hunger. They dye their hair and alter their pants with multicolored patches. Red is hopelessly older. Not in years, but in questions he asks himself. Young Rats are not concerned about tomorrow. Their life begins and ends today. It is today they need that extra piece of toast, it’s today they need that new song, it’s today they need to take the only thing that’s on their mind and scrawl it in huge letters on the bathroom wall. Rats suffer from constipation but they’d still eat anything anytime. And fight over food. And over who sleeps where. And after the fight is over they’d listen to more music and eat again, with even more delight.
(Kindle Version, p. 424)
Hopewell's Public Library of Life 
Sounds pretty bleak, but describes a situation many people choose to ignore.
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