Well I don’t know about you, but when I recall childhood pain, I don’t recall the pains of toothache, a thrashed backside, broken bones, stubbed toes, gashed knees or twisted ankles – I recall the pains of loneliness, boredom, abandonment, humiliation, rejection and fear. Those are the pains on which I might and, still sometimes do, dwell, and those pains, almost without exception, were inflicted on me by other children and by myself. Stephen Fry.

I live my life you live yours. If you're clear about what you want then you can live anyway you please. I don't give a damn what people say. They can be reptile food for all I care. Haruki Murakami.

What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly promising, and fading out into an indifferent middle age. Sylvia Plath.