The Midnight Library

by Matt Haig

‘So, you see? Sometimes regrets aren’t based on fact at all. Sometimes regrets are just . . .’ She searched for the appropriate term and found it. ‘A load of bullshit.’

success isn’t something you measure, and life isn’t a race you can win.

Every second of every day we are entering a new universe. And we spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad.’

Fear was when you wandered into a cellar and worried that the door would close shut. Despair was when the door closed and locked behind you.

‘We only know what we perceive. Everything we experience is ultimately just our perception of it. “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”’

‘You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it.’