“Cleansed, chlorinated to the point of chemical peel, sore muscles relieved, I felt almost human again. Tiptoe to my room, up a darkened hall, past closed doors, I wondered if I'd ever feel completely human again.”

“I was lying there on the floor, feeling a cold draft tiptoe down the hall and into the living room, and all of a sudden I felt very, very lonely.”

“I do, indeed, close my door at times and surrender myself to a book, but only because I can open the door again and see a human face looking at me”

“I never thought I'd die alone. Another six months I'll be unknown. Give all my things to all my friends. You'll never set foot in my room again. You'll close it off, board it up. Remember the time that I spilled the cup of apple juice in the hall? Please tell mom this is not her fault.”

“Fame is a perverse deformity, an ego swelling as ludicrous as an extra organ, and the people that have it, for a huge part, are willfully and deliberately fucked-up past the point of ever having anything sweet or human or normal about themselves ever again.”

“I thought the love I'd had for him belonged to the past, to the foolish, lonely girl I never wanted to be again. I'd tried to bury that girl and the love she'd felt, just as I'd tried to bury my power. But I wouldn't make that mistake again.”