It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathingโthey are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.
Stephen FryI flicked my eyes over to Steve again and saw him straighten. He would need a diversion just to start. โExplanations?โ I bellowed. โExplanations? Thereโs your explanationโฆthere!โ I stabbed a finger dramatically towards the far corner of the room. Pathetic, really. I mean, talk about the oldest trick in the book. But itโs a good book, and the trick would have been cut from subsequent editions if it didnโt sometimes work.
Stephen Fry