Ginger

“Es gibt Wörter, die machen mit mir, was sie wollen. Sie sind ganz anders als ich und denken anders, als sie sind. Sie fallen mir ein, damit ich denke, es gibt erste Dinge, die das Zweite schon wollen. Auch wenn ich das gar nicht will.”

“I’m always telling myself I don’t have many feelings. Even when something does affect me I’m only moderately moved. I almost never cry. It’s not that I’m stronger than the ones with teary eyes, I’m weaker. They have courage. When all you are is skin and bones, feelings are a brave thing. I’m more of a coward. The difference is minimal though, I just use my strength not to cry. When I do allow myself a feeling, I take the part that hurts and bandage it up with a story that doesn’t cry, that doesn’t dwell on homesickness.”

“I carry silent baggage. I have packed myself into silence so deeply and for so long that I can never unpack myself using words. When I speak, I only pack myself a little differently.”

“It is wrong to pretend that human beings are unique, that they carry within them an irreplaceable individuality; as far as I was concerned, at any rate, I could not distinguish any trace of such an individuality. As often as not it is futile to wear yourself out trying to distinguish individual destinies and personalities. When all’s said and done, the idea of the uniqueness of the individual is nothing more than pompous absurdity. We remember our own lives, Schopenhauer wrote somewhere, a little better than a novel we once read. That’s about right: a little, no more.”

“Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.”

“A human soul devoid of longing was a soul deformed, deprived of its highest good, sick unto death.”

I don't feel particularly proud of myself. But when I walk alone in the woods or lie in the meadows, all is well.

So the fact that I'm me and no one else is one of my greatest assets. Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.