From Monaco Cool:
Pickleman was at the Alamo Bar, sipping red wine, unusually talkative. He shook his head, glanced this way and that, and spoke.
"Monaco," he said. "It's programmed to get people into trouble."
"Come again?"
"There's a web of temptation in this town. And just about everyone gets caught."
"What kind of web?"
"Take marriages. I've been here ten years, and I've seen every kind of marriage break up before my eyes. The women are always searching for a richer man. Yeah, there's a lot of unhappiness here. A lot of unhappiness in money. The nouveau-riche are the absolute worst. They don't have any discipline. Old wealth grew up with responsibility. They can handle the burden. The nouveau-riche break under the pressure, and that's what this town is full of."
"Broken nouveau-riches?"
"No, broken marriages," said Pickleman. "They find that money doesn't buy happiness. If I woke up a millionaire, this is the last place I'd live. And Bob Bicker agrees."
"But Bicker is a millionaire and he lives here."
"Sure, that's part of his PR show," said Pickleman. "He has to live here. But he agrees. If you've got a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, and a thirty-foot yacht, someone's got two Lamborghinis, two Ferraris, and a forty-foot yacht. You look like small fry here no matter how much you have. Everyone's always trying to out-do each other."
"But you just said it can't be done."
"Yes, but they don't know it, these stupid nouveau-riches. They try anyway."
