My Friends

by Fredrik Backman

That’s all of life. All we can hope for. You mustn’t think about the fact that it might end, because then you live like a coward, you never love too much or sing too loudly. You have to take it for granted, the artist thinks, the whole thing: sunrises and slow Sunday mornings and water balloons and another person’s breath against your neck. That’s the only courageous thing a person can do.

the ultimate expression of love is nagging, we don’t nag anyone the way we nag the people we love. All parents know that, and so do all best friends.

Being a parent is so strange, all our children’s pain belongs to us, but so does their joy.

That we create and paint and dance and fall in love, that’s our rebellion against eternity. Everything