When you’re a teenager and in your early twenties it seems desperately eternal and excruciatingly painful. Whereas as you grow older you realise that most things are excruciatingly painful and that is the human condition.
Most of us continue to survive because we’re convinced that somewhere along the line, with grit and determination and perseverance, we will end up in some magical union with somebody.
It’s a fallacy, of course, but it’s a form of religion. You have to believe.
There is a light that never goes out and it’s called hope.
Morrissey, from “I’ve always felt like an exile” by Andrew Billen in The Times (30th May 2006)