An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)

by Hank Green

am also a woman in her twenties who has made some mistakes.

That means you get to understand me, not just my story,

To me it just seemed like that incurable ailment so many well-off dudes have, believing despite mountains of evidence that what the world truly needs is another white-guy comedy podcast.

“Behold the field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and see that it is barren.”

The power that each of us has over complete strangers to make them feel terrible and frightened and weak is amazing.

I don’t like that everyone has a price, but ultimately you do,

Much of the best art is about balancing between reflecting culture while simultaneously being removed from it and commenting on it.

know when to shut your mouth. My biggest problem was always the second bit.

You can only do so much pretending before you become the thing you’re pretending to be.

Knowing something is a bad idea does not always decrease the odds that you will do it.

had examined my motivations on this one, I probably wouldn’t have liked what I found, so I didn’t.

In my mind, I could only hear her on the spectrum from disappointed to livid. I didn’t feel like there would be excitement or support on the other side of that conversation, so I just kept not having it.

you dislike yourself enough that you cannot imagine anyone worthwhile actually wanting to be with you. I mean, if they like you, there must be something wrong with them, right?

a great roommate and school partner had probably kept me from completely destroying us, which I had had the impulse to do several times already.

I don’t know why I’ve never felt like a totally worthwhile person. I just haven’t.

The emptiness and silence of this apartment compounded my knowledge that I was, for the first time in my life, the only person sleeping in my home. This forced me to realize that, while I wanted to be fiercely myself, I also wanted someone around to see me do it.

And here it was all again, confronting the reality of my idiocy and uselessness.

What is reality except for the things that people universally experience the same way? The Dream, in that sense, was very, very real.