Here is the start of a book I'll never finish. Would you

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The once highly respected man became an insignificant version of his former self. People from far and close were baffled how this man, who was awarded great admiration by his peers and strangers, came to be this poverty stricken creature that now stood before them. No one actually bothered to ask him of his self imposed reasons, but rather, looked on at this assumed train wreck, this apparent madman, and cast forth their aspersions.

One day, while the man was in town; a girl with sweet lips and daring eyes tapped on his shoulder and spoke these words, words that will later lead to a response that changed her life.

“My dear, it’s scarcely my business to ask, but I do not wish to hold any prejudice against you. I will not stand back and gawk as all the others have done. So you see, it’s not a matter of mere curiosity, it's a matter of must, a matter of pure meaning. I am sorry, my dear sir, I am now blabbering, but I ask in great haste, if not only to stop all this calamity and restore a sense of restfulness, but to learn and understand.”

She paused momentarily, and then pursued with her abrupt question

“what has happened to you? what has become of you?”

Startled at first, the man grew a slight smile and his eyes began to look a little less sad

“I did not like myself, I began to grow fond of death far more than I enjoyed my own company, and that scared me. You see, while I had the admiration from all these people, I did not admire myself. I have never been a man of education, so I did not understand what was going on in my mind when I all of a sudden became morose. Everything I thought that mattered in this world became false, seemingly overnight. I stripped myself of my former identity. I parted with my past on the search of a true awakening, a true purpose. For the first time in my life I started to dress comfortably and read books. I watched the sunset a little longer, I laughed a little harder, and I embraced my innumerable amount of thoughts and emotions that I had locked away for all these years. I felt truly alive for the first time in my life, that is, until all these people started to clamour and made me feel like a madman, but I can assure you of one thing, my darling, it is they who are mad. It is they who are lost. I may look like a man of destitute to them, but it is they who are poor. They lack knowledge and they lack craft.”

The man looked around and noticed the city was starting to get busy and was filling up with noise.

“I must leave now, i’m sorry if I seem evasive, but I never come out here for too long. It is not good for me. I write poetry and I must return to my words. To all these people, I may not exist in their world anymore. but I will tell you one last thing, my darling, I am a very happy man in mine.”

As he started to depart, the girl was trying to gather her thoughts and understand what she had just heard

“Wait!” she shouted, watching him walk away.

“Can I please come with you?”