I have tried," I said, "but he does not believe me. It is too late for that now" (it is always too late for truth, I thought).

Something came out from my heart into my throat and then into my eyes.

...morbidly, attracted him to strangeness, to recklessnesss, even unhappiness.

very few people change after well say seven or seventeen. Not really. They get more this or more that and of course look a bit different. But inside they are the same.

I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness.

I hadn't bargained for this. I didn't think it would be like this - shabby clothes, worn-out shoes, circles under your eyes, your hair getting straight and lanky, the way people look at you. ... I didn't think it would be like this

What you take to be hyprocrisy is sometimes a certain caution, sometimes genuine, though ponderous, childish, sometimes a mixture of both.