" Without pain, it feels almost like I don’t have a body at all, almost like I’m a ghost, sitting in a chair, blinded and eternal.

Like I’m dead already.

Cuz how do you know yer alive if you don’t hurt?

“We are the choices we make, Todd,” the Mayor says. “Nothing more, nothing less. "

― Patrick Ness , The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2)