"When he loused the song spot. He was shaky with stagefright. You saw him. Sure he loused it. Why shouldn't he? He wasn't a performer; he was a composer. He came offstage licked. And instead of standing by him I blew my crazy stack about the letters."
"What did you say to him?"
"Christ! What lousy things didn't I say! I called him a fag and a Judas and tried to get the cops to arrest him...." Lennox grunted in agony. "How can a man do a thing like that to a friend? He was half my life."
"He still is."
"He's gone."
"No, you still have him."
"I destroyed him."
"You can't destroy remembering him. Never. Always remember Sam Cooper, the whole man, your friend."
"It hurts," Lennox groaned.
"You're lucky. You can punish yourself for what you did. It's the people who can't confess who suffer."