Sometimes it feels as though I live just below the surface, and everyone else lives above. When I try to be, and sound, and act like they do for too long, it feels like I can’t breathe. As though even my lungs were made differently, and I’m not able, or good enough to inhale the same air as the people I meet.

Being popular isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, people expect too much from you. Far better to blend in with the crowd, that way, when you do shine, people notice.

Mum says it is important to look your best, because even if people shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, they still do.

I remember looking up at that school, as though it were a prison I might never be allowed to leave. I wasn’t far wrong. There are some self-inflicted life sentences. We all carry prisons of regret inside our heads, unable to break free of the guilt and pain they cause us.

You should always fight, especially when you think you are going to lose. That’s when you should fight the hardest.

I doubt he felt the same way, but feelings don’t have to be mutual to be real.

I think you reach an age – and it is different for everyone – where you finally realize that all the things you thought mattered, don’t.

People are not mirrors-they don’t see you how you see yourself.

Life is like a game of chess; you just have to play it backwards and work out all the moves you need to make in advance, to get where you need to be.

She was never a sociable woman. Her two best friends were wine and whiskey, and they were always there when she needed them. Nobody else knew about how much she drank. She hid her habit well, and I learned that the best way to keep a secret is never to tell. Like mother, like daughter.