Later, hiding in the latrine from the black boys, I'd take a look at my own self in the mirror and wonder how it was possible that anybody could manage such an enormous thing as being what he was.

'But I tried though,' he says. 'Goddammit, I sure as hell did that much, now, didn't I?'

But just as soon as we got to the pool he said he did wish something mighta been done, though, and dove into the water.

I thought for a minute there I saw her whipped. Maybe I did. But I see now that it don't make any difference.... To beat her you don't have to whip her two out…

For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, lo…

My 'act' has ended by becoming an integral part of my nature, I told myself. It's no longer an act. My knowledge that I am masquerading as a normal person has …

Not for one second will my self hold still, but wanders anywhere, everywhere it can turn. Not you, it is I am absent.