I wondered a little why God was such a useless thing. It seemed a waste of time to have him. After that he became less and less, until he was... nothingness.

For eight years I was an inmate in a state asylum for the insane. During those years I passed through such unbearable terror that I deteriorated into a wild, frightened creature intent only on survival. And I survived. I was raped by orderlies, gnawed on by rats and poisoned by tainted food. I was chained in padded cells, strapped into strait-jackets and half-drowned in ice baths. And I survived. The asylum itself was a steel trap, and I was not released from its jaws alive and victorious. I crawled out mutilated, whimpering and terribly alone. But I did survive.

I wondered a little why God was such a useless thing. It seemed a waste of time to have him. After that he became less and less, until he was... nothingness.

I have learned that to have a good friend is the purest of all God's gifts, for it is a love that has no exchange of payment.

I just knew that God wasn't there. He was a man on a throne in Heaven, so he was easy to forget.

But I was sure of one thing. If God were a father, with children, that cleanliness I had been feeling wasn't God.

I minded my own business, and, unfortunately, so did everyone else.