And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

by Fredrik Backman

Do you remember what I told you about failing?” “The only time you’ve failed is if you don’t try once more.”

I would rather be old than a grown-up. All grown-ups are angry, it’s just children and old people who laugh.”

Almost all grown adults walk around full of regret over a good-bye they wish they’d been able to go back and say better.

“You were never easy, darling difficult sulky you, never diplomatic. You might even have been easy to dislike at times. But no one, absolutely no one, would dare tell me you were hard to love.”

That’s one good thing about forgetting things. You forget the things that hurt too.”

“Like constantly searching for something in your pockets. First you lose the small things, then it’s the big ones. It starts with keys and ends with people.”

“We lived an extraordinarily ordinary life.” “An ordinarily extraordinary life.”

“She got lost in my heart, I think. Couldn’t find her way out. Your grandma always had a terrible sense of direction. She could get lost on an escalator.”

once your good-bye is perfect, you have to leave me and not look back. Live your life. It’s an awful thing to miss someone who’s still here.”

“And I don’t think you need to be scared of forgetting me,” the boy says after a moment’s consideration. “No?” The corners of the boy’s mouth reach his earlobes. “No. Because if you forget me then you’ll just get the chance to get to know me again. And you’ll like that, because I’m actually a pretty cool person to get to know.”

“But the universe gave you both Noah. He’s the bridge between you. That’s why we get the chance to spoil our grandchildren, because by doing that we’re apologizing to our children.”

It’s a big universe to be angry at but a long life to have company in.