Those who were on the inside, the majority that is, for them it had been hard to get his point, mostly they were just pleased that they were on the inside, that they were the fittest. For those on the outside, the fear and abandonment amounts to almost everything; everybody knows that. Understanding is something one does best when one is on the borderline.

I like him. I have a weakness for losers. Invalids, foreigners, the fat boy of the class, the ones nobody ever wants to dance with. My heart beats for them. Maybe because I've always known that in some way I will forever be one of them.

The problem with anger against God is that it's impossible to go higher in the system to complain.

Whining is a virus, a lethal, infectious, epidemic disease.

There is one way to understand another culture. Living it. Move into it, ask to be tolerated as a guest, learn the language.

She was transparent, like a watercolor. As if she were about to dissolve in sound, in tones not yet created.

If you want to support others you have to stay upright yourself.