Confidence; as a teenager? Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I love cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved.

Life might just be an absurd, even crude, chain of events and nothing more.

I always write my novels with music (I don't listened to the music seriously.) Music seems to encourage me.

Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope.

I began to draw an invisible boundary between myself and other people. No matter who I was dealing with. I maintained a set distance, carefully monitoring the person’s attitude so that they wouldn’t get any closer. I didn’t easily swallow what other people told me. My only passions were books and music

Beyond the window, some kind of small, black thing shot across the sky. A bird, possibly. Or it might have been someone's soul being blown to the far side of the world.

I used to think the years would go by in order, that you get older one year at a time. But it's not like that. It happens overnight.