Because it does not bark, and it knows the secrets of the sea

That wasn't Baudelaire, that was Gérard de Nerval. When asked why he took his lobster for walks through the streets of Paris, he said: "Because it does not bark, and it knows the secrets of the sea."

(I personallly [sic] doubt the whole story, but it is a fantastic line...)

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl is fucking amazing. (I'm reading his collected stories.) He's very good at a number of things, and one of them is how he shows you the minds of these fucked up characters. Profoundly, massively fucked up, but subtly so, which makes it all the more creepy and entrancing. I've been wanting to do that, wanting to write from the perspective of someone who just has a weird fucking mind, and who also has a certain obliviousness about just how weird their way of looking at things is... I think in part it's this obliviousness that allows them to continue this way.

I'm having trouble articulating it further than that.

But like, check out this guy's site. The way his mind works is just fascinating to me.