I'm sure you don't, but always fighting on your own drains you. After a while, you don't have any hope or dreams or happiness left. You don't care, since it's easier that way, but bit by bit every last little piece of you dies. You end up angry all the time because it's the only way you have left to feel anything.

[He sighs.]

These aren't empty words, Clementine. That was my life when I was your age.