We're all well-acquainted with depression, we all know what the low moods are, but the mania was not something I knew much about. I didn't know that it would make someone dress extravagantly or start to pun, and to stay up and drink.

I'm constantly having doubts and moments of depression and then excitement and then back into the slough of despond.

Whenever we got a glimpse, their faces looked indecently revealed, as though we were used to seeing women in veils.

On their best days, writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers, all alone in their studios, with no one watching.

It was possible to feel superior to other people and feel like a misfit at the same time.

In the end we had the pieces of the puzzle, but no matter how we put them together, gaps remained, oddly shaped emptinesses mapped by what surrounded them, like countries we couldn't name.

Dieting fooled you into thinking you could control your life.