This is from one of the Bob Dylan forums. The discussion centered
around whether Dylan may be an alien abductee. I posted that it has
been speculated that Tom Verlaine may also be an abductee.
Someone replied:
The late guitarist Robert Quine worked for many years alongside Lou
Reed and had a very contentious personal relationship with him,
mostly due to the fact that Lou, while supremely gifted and
talented, was reportedly a massively egotistical asshole to most
anyone who worked with/for him.
A buddy of mine knew Quine back during the Lou Reed years and ran
into him long after when he was playing guitar for Matthew Sweet.
They had a lengthy conversation about the old NYC punk and new wave
scenes, and eventually the subject of Television, Lloyd and Verlaine
came up.
My buddy had also encountered Verlaine a bit back in the day and had
told me he was an exquisitely insufferable person to be around,
which has been borne out by my own personal observations at live
Television and Verlaine solo shows over the years.
Quine knew Verlaine quite well, and so my friend asked him, "Who
would you rather work with or be around, Lou or Tom?"
Quine made a sour face and simply replied (with emphasis), "Well, at
least Lou is A HUMAN."