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Kindle Notes & Highlights
“I’m saying the world takes you at your word. Make sure the thing you’re telling them is what you want them to hear.”
“‘If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them,’” he said as if reciting a quote. It only took me a second to realize that a quote was exactly right. “‘The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.’”
“You’d be surprised what happens to people after a few days living under those kinds of conditions,” he continued. “It’s like plugging into a different reality—one where the bullshit just falls away. You eat and you struggle. You make it through each moment, hoping it won’t be your last. And when you finally lie down for the night, you turn to the person next to you and say what’s in your heart. You don’t have the energy for anything else.”
Books were always trying to teach us that the power of love could overcome any hardship and that money didn’t buy happiness.
He’d forgotten how it felt. To hold a book in your hands and know that everything would turn out okay in the end, to lose yourself in someone else’s story… That was a joy he hadn’t allowed himself to indulge in for a very long time.
In many ways, books were more alive than most of the people he knew. They were living, breathing entities that changed each time you picked them up.
I know lots of things for sure, but not for the reasons I’m supposed to. Other people—most people—understand the rules to things just because. They know when to talk and when to keep quiet, when someone needs a hug and when they need space. I only know things because I’m good at paying attention.
He likes knowing how close he is to the things that make life brighter, and he likes being a few steps away from happiness. He also likes not ever actually getting there. It’s okay, because I understand. I understand a lot more than anyone thinks. Because what happens if you reach the thing and you still aren’t happy? What happens if you try to do better, but no matter how much of yourself you put in, you’ll never be what the teachers and bosses and people in the grocery store want?
“Everyone’s heart breaks at least once in a lifetime,” she said, determined, as ever, to go her own way. “It’s as inevitable as falling in love. The real challenge is deciding what you plan to do about it.”
What’s the point of living if all you’re going to do is make everyone around you miserable? What are we put on this earth for if not to make life better for those we leave behind?’”
“You know, the thing I’ve always loved most about books is how they make it possible to live a thousand different lives,” she said, speaking as though my heart wasn’t leaking out all over my face and dripping onto her expensive purse. “Things in this world rarely go according to plan, and we often find ourselves on roads and in cities we never planned to visit, let alone stay in forever. I take comfort from knowing that I can always pick up a book—a new one, if I want to travel someplace unique; an old one, if I find myself in need of a friend—and make everything feel right again.”
“The world isn’t what it used to be, Chloe.” She gave a short laugh. “Well, that’s not true. It’s the same relentless, beautiful, soul-crushing place it’s always been. But it’s bigger now. More connected. If you don’t like where you are, you don’t have to pack up your whole family and abandon everything you know and love. All you have to do is grab a different story from the shelf.”
