" And they would laugh at me. The dress was all sticking out around me and it was dark green with a pattern of animals with long tongues on it--and all the kids were laughing at me. And now I'm wearing a fur coat, and I'm in Berlin! And I would throw rocks at them and swear to myself that I would not be the kind that is laughed at, but that I would do the laughing. "

― Irmgard Keun , The Artificial Silk Girl