Turtles All the Way Down

by John Green

But I was beginning to learn that your life is a story told about you, not one that you tell. Of course, you pretend to be the author. You have to. You think, I now choose to go to lunch, when that monotone beep rings from on high at 12:37. But really, the bell decides. You think you’re the painter, but you’re the canvas.

The thing about a spiral is, if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keeps tightening, infinitely.

“Your brain seems like a very intense place,” Mom answered.

True terror isn’t being scared; it’s not having a choice in the matter.

We are about to live the American Dream, which is, of course, to benefit from someone else’s misfortune.”

But the things that make other people nervous have never scared me. I’m not afraid of men in golf carts or horror movies or roller coasters. I didn’t know precisely what I was afraid of, but it wasn’t this.