“Please feel free to take this personally.”

“Is that why you hate me?" I ask. "Partly," She admits. "Jealousy is certainly involved. I also think you're a little hard to swallow. With your tacky romantic drama and your defender-of-the-helpless act. Only it isn't an act, which makes you more unbearable. Please feel free to take this personally.”

“They can pump whatever they want into my arm but it takes more than that to keep a person going once she's lost the will to live.”

“I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away.”

“The main thing I feel is a sense of relief. That I can give up this game. That the question of whether I can succeed in this venture has been answered, even if that answer is a resounding no. That if desperate times call for desperate measures, I am free to act as desperately as I want.”

“This is what birds see. Only they're free and safe. The very opposite of me.”

“Why am I hopping around like some trained dog trying to please people I hate?”