My talent was the uncompromising ability to feel spite.

Friends are a weird thing. It seems like they know all about you, but then they don’t understand you at all.

I’m still afraid of being totally honest. I’m more afraid of this than dying.

I was frightened by the optimism of adults, their stupid trust in science to treat a troubled heart. Afraid of their obsession with believing they have to treat troubled kids. I just wanted them to leave me alone, so how come they didn't get it? But that's the way it always is.

I'm this superphilosophical kind of person. Stuck in a prison of abstract ideas and overpowering emotions, I have this personality that makes it really hard to survive.

It wasn't so much that I was afraid of the place itself, but I was afraid of the creatures who masqueraded as people.

When stones lying warm in the sun were turned over, they exposed the cold, damp earth underneath; and that was where Masako had burrowed deep. There was no trace of warmth in this dark earth, yet for a bug curled up tight in it, it was a peaceful and familiar world.