I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence.

Family life was wonderful. The streets were bleak. The playgrounds were bleak. But home was always warm. My mother and father had a great relationship. I always felt 'safe' there.

I had my bully, and it was excruciating. Not only the bully, but the intimidation I felt.

Don't miss the bus, boy. You're missing a lot of things in the world, better not miss that bus.

He hated to think of his own life stretching ahead of him that way, a long succession of days and nights that were fine - not good, not bad, not great, not lousy, not exciting, not anything.

I'm a one-woman man. Pretty much.