The Impossible Fortune Quotes

“When old friends die, you’re furious, because you’ve never quite finished what you were saying to them.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Why does she always push her mum away? There’s something about that relationship, something about being a child, and the need of a child to be an individual, to be something more than the things she’s been taught and the way she’s been raised. The need to somehow teach a lesson to the person who has taught her so many lessons? Joyce’s love for her is unconditional, Joanna knows that, but, really, unconditional love has a huge flaw. If you love me no matter what, who I actually am doesn’t matter. If someone loves your essence, your very being, what can you do to make them love you more or love you less? Nothing: there is no space. So the only option left to you is to continually prod at that unconditional love, to test it and stretch it, to mock it even. And it’s not just that. There is a further problem with unconditional love, isn’t there? Because what if you don’t love yourself? What if, like Joanna, you obsess over your flaws and weaknesses, you constantly update the balance sheet of your own personality and find it wanting? Well, then the unconditional love of a parent is a sign that they simply don’t know you. If they truly knew you, their love would be peppered with caveats. “I love you, but…”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“He keeps finding pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but no one will show him the picture on the front of the box.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“but, really, unconditional love has a huge flaw. If you love me no matter what, who I actually am doesn’t matter. If someone loves your essence, your very being, what can you do to make them love you more or love you less? Nothing: there is no space. So the only option left to you is to continually prod at that unconditional love, to test it and stretch it, to mock it even.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Always alone, and never alone: that was grief.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Elizabeth sits completely still, and waits. It can take a while, but, if you are still long enough, they come to you. Fitful babies, zooming kittens, men with secrets. With nothing to bounce off, their nervous energy eventually seems ridiculous to them, and across they trot.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“What happened” is never what defines you in life; “What you did next” is what defines you.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“The pain is temporary, but the lesson the pain teaches you is forever.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Trouble is much like love: when the time is ready, it will find you.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“It never gets better, but it gets easier.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Well, yes, I am [a criminal]," says Jamie. "But not what you're talking about. Not planting bombs, not killing people. I'm a coward."
"Don't be so hard on yourself," says Bogdan. "We all have different strengths.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Her dad sitting in his gardening trousers doing the crossword as the madness played out around him? "Cup of tea, Dad?" "Only if you're making one." "Mum out, is she?" "Being shot at in a warehouse." "That's nice - need any help with the crossword?”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“She closes her eyes in silent apology to her husband. I’m still here, darling. Still here, while you are gone. I suspect I should just make the best of it.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“You’re not hungover?’ You drank just as much as me.’ ‘The moment I got in I drank two raw eggs with Tabasco sauce,’ says Elizabeth. Joyce nods. ‘I ate some wedding cake, then had a Baileys.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“you constantly update the balance sheet of your own personality and find it wanting? Well, then the unconditional love of a parent is a sign that they simply don’t know you. If they truly knew you, their love would be peppered with caveats. “I love you, but…”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Joanna should love herself the way Joyce loves her: that is what Joyce has been trying to show her. Joyce is well aware of Joanna’s faults; she doesn’t hide them. But Joyce loves her regardless. Loves her more, in fact, for her flaws.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Joyce’s love for her is unconditional, Joanna knows that, but, really, unconditional love has a huge flaw. If you love me no matter what, who I actually am doesn’t matter. If someone loves your essence, your very being, what can you do to make them love you more or love you less? Nothing: there is no space. So the only option left to you is to continually prod at that unconditional love, to test it and stretch it, to mock it even.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“My God, the older we all get, the more like children we are.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Take every word anyone has ever written about grief. Every line every poet has ever written. Every word of every friend who breaks down in front of you, every tear you’ve ever seen shed. Take the whole lot of them and throw them down a well, and you wouldn’t even hear them hit the bottom.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“What happened' is never what defines you in life; 'What you did next' is what defines you.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Perhaps I’ll kill her too?” says Davey. “You can’t,” says Bogdan. “Only God can kill Elizabeth.” “And even he’d think twice,” says Ron.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“But the more you get to know Paul, the more you see that he is ambitious, just not for money. He is ambitious for happiness. For himself and others.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“How much longer does he have as a child, this clever boy? How much longer before life makes him an adult? Until his shoes have laces and his heart has scars? Until his shame deepens alongside his voice and he no longer wants to lie on the floor and colour in the planets?”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“How did you get these salaries?’ ‘The big ones you get from LinkedIn,’ says Tia. A lot of cocaine dealers are now using LinkedIn, Connie has noticed; she keeps getting requests.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“He has what passes for pride in men who grew up with pride denied to them.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Joyce looks at Jasper’s tracksuit trousers, sagging and old. She looks at his eyes, pale and watery, glad of the company and sad to see it go.
Joyce knows then that she will be coming back to see Jasper again one day, and she will make sure Elizabeth will be coming too.
How many men like Jsaper sit behind beige front doors in quiet bungalows, not knowing how to dress or what to eat or where to go? Wanting above all else not to be a nuisance? Joyce wishes she could save them all.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“But I find sometimes that the harder you work, the luckier you get.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Ron looks up at the football match on the big screen. Arsenal are playing Man City”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“but in life there is only one right answer, and you either get it right or you don’t.”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune

“Ron doesn’t know what happened last night”
― Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune