Then I lost it. Kinda lost it all, you know. Faith, dignity, about fifteen pounds. - Nick Hornby

Self-pity is an ignoble emotion, but we all feel it, and the orthodox critical line that it represents some kind of artistic flaw is dubious, a form of emotional correctness.

Each day was a bad day, but he survived by kidding himself that each day was somehow unconnected to the day before.

And another way of explaining it is that shit happens, and there's no space too small, too dark and airless and fucking hopeless, for people to crawl into.