“But it's not so much a headache as possession, my head an occupied territory, and my normal self, a disenfranchised native populace, driven underground.”

“I have always been sure that if England were ever occupied its people would find the organization of underground cells an almost effortless means of self-expression.”

“Peoples, populations, native populaces, tribes and religious communities are not nations, even though they are often spoken of as such.”

“I had a fierce headache and (my parents’) soft conversation was like a light rain falling on the hot roof of my head.”

“You think too much.''I suppose I do; but I can’t help it, my mind is so terribly active. When I give myself, I give myself. I pay the penalty in my headaches, my famous headaches--a perfect circlet of pain! But I carry it as a queen carries her crown.”

“[M]y sensitivity was unfortunately even more monstrous than my grotesqueness. Yes, my grotesqueness; I possess the courage to judge myself without pity, and to call things by their proper names. If only you knew... how I hate my own self, how much I hate my ugliness, yet never so much as I detest my heart.”