Fortunately for me, I ran across some girls I could get along with so I could enjoy high school life okay, but it must be awful for kids who don't get along with anybody. We're different from our parents, a completely different species from our teachers. And kids who are one grade apart you are in a different world altogether. In other words, we're basically surrounded by enemies and have to make it on our own.

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

My talent was the uncompromising ability to feel spite.

I suppose I’m the one responsible for destroying myself.

Kids lose their trust in the parents they love, but still accept them, so they end up not trusting themselves anymore.

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.

A women who does not know herself has no choice other than to live with other people's evaluations.