The Book of Doors

by Gareth Brown

“I’ve read it before, but as I get older, I find comfort in rereading favorites. It’s like spending time with old friends.”

This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.

“The young have the loudest dreams,” Drummond murmured, more to himself. “Unfettered by life and reality.”

Eating had always been one of his pleasures, and it had kept him going over the last ten years, while he had been moving constantly. In the darkest moments, he would stop at a restaurant or a diner, surround himself with the happy noises of other people in their easy lives, and take his time over food. Those moments had been his respite, islands of peace in a stormy sea.

These had been his friends, the people he had loved. These had been people who had never hurt anyone in their lives. They had been magnificent and funny and so alive, and now they were not; they were full stops at the end of a beautiful poem.

You are allowed to just enjoy your life. You are viewing this period of your life as an agony, but you can choose to see it as a gift.”

Don’t waste your life hidden away in your own mind. Make the most of the time you have, otherwise before you know it, you’ll have no time left.”

“Somebody once told me that you can’t change the past, you can only create the present you live in.”

it was an impossibility to exist without thought. Even to desire not to think was to think. Thoughts formed unbidden, memories and emotions and images, all the things that form a human.

stupid people aren’t usually quiet. Stupid people are usually the noisiest people in the room.”