“Because I am thought to be important I am left alone. They call me doctor but I am not the kind of doctor they believe I am. I cannot mend a broken leg and am useless to everyone onboard. By virtue of my professorship I am granted peace.”

“The mountain in the distance grows darker as we approach it, but it isn't black, and the thought slips into my mind: perfect blackness is impossible now. And because I don't know what that means, and because this is all a dream, I accept the thought unconditionally.”

“I am flagrantly nuts. I can say this because I am a doctor and I know about these things.”

“I am sailing on a ship bound for life. a line in a song”

“Maybe people are strangers because time makes them strangers, not because you don't know them, and people you've never met are strangers because you've spent so long not knowing them.”

“If I am frightened then I can hide itIf I am crying, I'll call it laughterIf I am haunted, I'll call it my imaginary friendIf I am bleeding I'll call it wineBut if you leave me then I am brokenAnd if I'm broken then only death remains”

“I am a sick man. ... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don't consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it, though. Of course, I can't explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I am perfectly well aware that I cannot "pay out" the doctors by not consulting them; I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still, if I don't consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well--let it get worse!I have been going on like that for a long time--twenty years. Now I am forty. I used to be in the government service, but am no longer. I was a spiteful official. I was rude and took pleasure in being so. I did not take bribes, you see, so I was bound to find a recompense in that, at least. (A poor jest, but I will not scratch it out. I wrote it thinking it would sound very witty; but now that I have seen myself that I only wanted to show off in a despicable way, I will not scratch it out on purpose!)”