Sebastian

“Beautiful,' [his wife] would murmur, nudging Septimus that he might see. But beauty was behind a pane of glass. Even taste had no relish to him. He put down his cup on the little marble table. He looked at people outside; happy they seemed, collecting in the middle of the street, shouting, laughing, squabbling over nothing. But he could not taste, he could not feel. In the tea-shop among the tables and the chattering waiters the appalling fear came over him--he could not feel.”
― Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

“The trip back from Pointe du Lac was thrilling. And the constant chatter of Lestat was positively the most boring and disheartening thing I experienced. Of course as I said, I was far from being his equal.”
― Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire

“It was only by scorning all she met that she kept herself from tears, and the friction of people brushing past her was evidently painful.”
― Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out

“Now you must excuse your Raja for he must suffer to give audience to the prince of Punt, a pompous old fool, who believes that his frequent flatulencies are the echoes of the Gods applauding his non sequiturs.”
― Piers Anthony, The Willing Spirit