The trick was to disappear without a trace, leaving behind me the shadow of a corpse, a shadow everyone would mistake for solid reality. At first I thought I’d managed it. (Chapter 1)

I was someone else now, I was almost someone else. (Chapter 3)

But it wasn’t more honesty that would have saved me, I thought; it was more dishonesty. In my experience, honesty and expressing your feelings could only lead to one thing. Disaster. (Chapter 4)

For a while I wanted to be an opera singer. Even though they were fat they could wear extravagant costumes, nobody laughed at them, and they were loved and praised. (Chapter 7)

As for me, I had a terrific personality… (Chapter 9)

Most of the time I was on the side of the optimistic caterpillar, but in my gloomiest moments I would think, So what if you turn into a butterfly? Butterflies die too. (Chapter 10)

My mother had been in a... (Chapter 11)