He's taken it from somebody else, ; and in doing so I think he's doing this deliberately; he's exposing some of the darker ironies behind his own literary ambition.
He's somebody recounting something really ugly and scary that happened, and of course, he signifying when he's doingit and he's talking about he used to eat ribs with this dude, he's telling you about the level of intimacy he had with his neighbor.
If you are at a media - or if you are at a major function and you're a media member and somebody is doing something that seems outrageous, in many respects it's almost your job to report on that.