It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathingâ€”they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.

Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry

body-image books depression insecurity isolation language laughter literature philosophy self-consciousness self-image self-loathing shame social-anxiety

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