Anxious People

by Fredrik Backman

We open our eyes in the morning and life is just waiting to tip a fresh avalanche of ‘Don’t Forget!’s and ‘Remember!’s over us. We don’t have time to think or breathe, we just wake up and start digging through the heap, because there will be another one dumped on us tomorrow.

if phobias were logical and plausible they wouldn’t be called phobias.

‘Expensive restaurants have bigger gaps between the tables. First class on aeroplanes has no middle seats. Exclusive hotels have separate entrances for guests staying in suites. The most expensive thing you can buy in the most densely populated places on the planet is distance.’

Sometimes I don’t think I’m ready for the responsibility – I mean, I think my phone is asking too much of me when it wants me to install an update, and I find myself yelling: “You’re suffocating me.” You can’t shout that at a child. And children have to be updated all the time, because they can kill themselves just crossing the street or eating a peanut! I’ve mislaid my phone three times already today, I don’t know if I’m ready for a human being.’

When you’re a child you long to be an adult and decide everything for yourself, but when you’re an adult you realize that’s the worst part of it.

‘Boats that stay in the harbour are safe, sweetheart, but that’s not what boats were built for.’