No, I'm not forgetting that. But if you're anything like me -- yes, even Smiley's Person Himself -- there's some rueful regretful wishful "if only" that's independent of the concern for the wee ones.
And I dunno about the junkie. You know, you listen to these old junkies talk and, with the possible exceptions of Hunter S. Thompson and William S. Burroughs, there wasn't much "fun." Think about the Dark Side -- when, o when, will Rock Star contact me again? Why hasn't s/he called? In a sense Monsoor is a like teenage girl -- his entire world is defined by the phone and the latest issue of Tiger Beat.
I always think about that funny scene in "Get Shorty," when Danny Devito shows up at The Ivy, orders the enormous omelette or something that's not even on the menu, and then splits before the food even arrives -- from the POV (now that I'm all Hollywood 'n' sh*t I can use that abbreviation) of someone desperately hanging-on, that can't be an easy way to live.
