Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the artists, because they're a mouthy lot and they don't line up and salute very easily.
People who want to kill other people are the last people I want to party with, because I get mouthy when I drink.
Bob wasn't precisely a friend to me but. . . I was used to him. In a way he was family, the mouthy, annoying, irritable cousin who was always insulting you but who was definitely at Thanksgiving dinner. I had never considered the possibility that one day he might be something else.