I saw how pure, in a way, they were – no matter what they had done. Each in their own way they had tried to stay what they were. Not like me, who had never been anything, and so had been trying all my life to be someone else. To come inside. I saw that they understood this, too. That they understood it and that it was okay. That, even so, I mattered, come what may.

Author: Peter Høeg