For my book recommendations, I want to try something different. I am going to recommend the book by referencing my favorite quotes. Fear not, these are edited to ensure there are no real spoilers! I thought this would be the best way for you to get a sense of the author’s style! Enjoy!
“So it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is. Especially if you have other people trying to be a reasonably good human being for” page 1
“Because everyone loves someone, and anyone who loves someone has had those desperate nights where we lie awake trying to figure out how we can afford to carry on being human beings” page 2.
“…had therefore reached an age where there’s suddenly very little difference between fourteen and twenty. That’s what makes a person feel old.” page 39
“A whole world constantly asking us: ‘But is your life as perfect as this? Well? How about now? Is it as perfect as this? If it isn’t, change it!’” page 56
“Why do people like you hate money so much?” page 91
“She’s seven years older than him, and with that age gap you don’t have a big sister when you’re little, you have an idol. When she left him he couldn’t go with her, and when she tried to find herself he couldn’t help, and when she went under he couldn’t save her.” page 202
“Addicts are addicted to their drugs, and their families are addicted to hope.” page 202
“…that’s the greatest loneliness in the world: when no one is walking beside you toward your destination.” page 205
“Nothing is easier for people who never do anything themselves than to criticize someone who actually makes an effort.” page 209
“Being seen through isn’t pleasant, you tend to pull your clothes a little tighter when it happens…” page 232
“They didn’t have any way of talking about that, because they’d never practiced the right words.” page 237
“In the end there simply wasn’t ever a time before him.” page 241
“All that awaited her were a thousand sunrises where life is a beautiful prison.” page 248.
“He was my echo. Everything I do is quieter now.” page 249
“She’s my everyday.” page 257
“Everybody has to start somewhere.” page 278
“Sometimes two strangers only need one thing in common to find each other sympathetic” page 291
“You’re parents and teammates, first and foremost, and being married slips down the list of priorities. But you…well, you keep climbing trees and see each other along the way. The important thing was that we kept climbing the same tree.” page 301
“…but late in life even computer programmers become poets.” page 317
“Most people aren’t greedy, most people are just…they’re just looking for something to cling on to. Something to fight for.” page 318
“Sometimes we don’t need distance, just barriers.” page 319
“All because it’s so damn difficult to admit that something else is…broken.” page 320
“The four biggest little words one person, anyone at all, can say to another: It wasn’t your fault.” pages 322-23
“We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrow.” page 324
“As if the chaos could possibly be hidden.” page 324
“One day becomes another, now becomes then.” page 329
“…maybe she now knows the difference between how it feels to fly and how it feels to fall, maybe she doesn’t. That sort of thing’s impossible to control, just like love.” page 331
“Because we’re doing the best we can, we really are. We’re trying to be grown up and love each other and understand how the hell you’re supposed to insert USB leads.” page 336
