Somebody once said to me if you want to be understood, don't write fiction. - Mary Gaitskill

Dani said this woman, with whom she'd lived for two years, had never known her. "I feel like people accept the first thing I show them," she said, "and that's all I ever am to them."

Everybody wanted to be depressed. But your depression was supposed to be funny, too, and that was what had proved too much for Dolores.

She brightened. "Last week I ran a personal ad in the Guardian. I answered a few too. I'm not looking for sex; I feel too vulnerable for that. I just want somebody to hurt me and humiliate me."