Het zat er al een tijd aan te komen, maar het komt toch redelijk hard aan:

Christopher Hitchens was a wit, a charmer, and a troublemaker, and to those who knew him well, he was a gift from, dare I say it, God. He died today at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, after a punishing battle with esophageal cancer, the same disease that killed his father.

He was a man of insatiable appetites—for cigarettes, for scotch, for company, for great writing, and, above all, for conversation.

Trg. Even oud als mijn vader geworden, en van hetzelfde dood gegaan. Smerige wereld.