"Mr. Cobb, how are you doing?" I asked James Cobb, a lawyer in New Orleans, Louisiana.
"It depends on what you mean," Mr. Cobb answered. "If you mean how am I doing after losing my house and every fucking thing in it, and after being forced to live in a two-bedroom shithole with my wife and two kids and being told how lucky I am to get it, and after being fucked—and I mean absolutely fucked—by my insurance company and by the United States government (and by the way, just so you know, if anybody from New Orleans, Louisiana tells you that they're not getting fucked by their insurance company and by the United States government, they're fucking lying, all right?)...if you mean, how am I doing after all that is factored in: Well, I guess the answer is that I'm doing fine. Now, how can I help you?"
The author's first exchange of words with James Cobb. From "The Loved Ones" by Tom Junod (Esquire Magazine, September 2006, Volume 146, Issue 3)