I guessed life was like that. ...

I guessed life was like that. You gained and you lost, and if you saved anything from the ruins, even if only a shred of self-respect, it was enough to take you through the next bit.
 Dick Francis

Quotes from the same author

I hadn’t had a mother since I was two, and from then until seven I had believed God was someone who had run off with her and was living with her somewhere else... (God took your mother, dear, because he needed her more than you do) which had never endeared him to me
 Dick Francis
Look at everything upside down.Take absolutely nothing for granted.
 Dick Francis
Some are born weird, some achieve it, others have weirdness thrust upon them.
 Dick Francis