I had a curious feeling that I was living on several planes simultaneously; the overlapping of these planes was confusing.

I know I've got a death wish. I've never enjoyed my life, I've never liked people. I love the mountains because they are the negation of life, indestructible, inhuman, untouchable, indifferent, as I want to be.

Because of my fear that the daytime world would become real, I had to establish reality in another place.

Reality had always been something of an unknown quantity to me.

I had a curious feeling that I was living on several planes simultaneously; the overlapping of these planes was confusing.

While I am watching the birds I believe I am comparatively immune from the assaults of life. The very indifference to humanity of these wild creatures affords me a certain safeguard. Where all else is dangerous, hostile and liable to inflict pain, they alone can do me no injury because, probably, they are not even aware of my existence. The birds are at once my refuge and my relaxation.

I had never before met anyone who owned a telephone and believed in dragons.