Conversations with Friends

by Sally Rooney

Things matter to me more than they do to normal people, I thought. I need to relax and let things go.

Probably nothing of import will happen in my life again and I’ll just have to sweep things up until I die.

I wasn’t used to being attacked like this and it was frightening. I thought of myself as an independent person, so independent that the opinions of others were irrelevant to me. Now I was afraid that Nick was right: I isolated myself from criticism so I could behave badly without losing my sense of righteousness.