The Man Who Died Quotes

“Perhaps this is one of the eternal laws of the universe: we never do anything right, and other people always know best about how we should do things, including dying.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Printers are like that,’ I say. ‘It’s in their nature. They print when you don’t need anything. And when you really need something printed out, the ink cartridge is empty or there’s a sheet of paper jammed inside, the printer tells you it’s lost its internet connection or that it doesn’t recognise the computer you’re trying to print from. If you ask me, the whole idea of a digital, paperless future is down to the fact that printers have driven so many people to despair and insanity. Paper is a good thing; it’s beautiful. There’s nothing wrong with paper: it feels pleasant in your hand and it’s the best way to read something. The only problem is getting those little black marks onto the surface of the paper in the first place. Even with all the modern technology at our disposal it’s all but impossible. I suspect – no, I’m absolutely convinced – that the printer companies and the antidepressant manufacturers of this world are in cahoots.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Everybody should die at least once, if only to see how beautiful the morning can be.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“There are moments when, in all its sheer wretchedness, the unfettered embarrassment of middle age can surpass even death.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Don’t tell anybody, but the day I got divorced was one of the best days of my life.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“If you had only a day left, what would you do? And what if you had a week? A month?”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“How much of our lives do we put in inverted commas, I wonder”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Nothing is permanent.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“People don’t know the depths of their own minds until they start to think about things like this.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“The good thing about death is that as it draws closer many things I used to think were important lose their significance.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“It’s impossible to keep anything secret in this town, I think to myself. Here even the dead are brought back to life, and there has to be a suitable explanation for everything.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“I don’t know what happiness is, but I imagine it must be intrinsically linked to being alive.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“The situation isn’t ideal, but when was the last time things were ideal? I wonder.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Most things we do have little if nothing to do with anything concrete or necessary but are motivated by what we want other people to think of us.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“It’s such a challenge to find any point of comparison for life as we know it, it’s painful.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“People are sitting out on the terrace drinking beer, taking it easy; some are in the shade, some in the sunshine. For them it’s summer; they are not dying.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“The sun rises, the sun sets. Life is a single day.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Death feels at its most unreal in the mornings. My experience of death is only a few days in length, but already I can say that the nearer the day gets to evening, the closer the end always feels. Perhaps this is only natural.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“It feels as though I’m working and moving at precisely the pace you would expect of a dying man. Events that in the past would have taken a year, now fit into a single day.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“The minutes pass. If I think about our upcoming meeting, they pass more slowly. If I think about death, they flash by in seconds.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“I will die here; this will be my place of death. The term doesn’t resonate as much as when people mention their place of birth, though perhaps that’s hardly surprising. There’s so little to say about our place of death, and so few people to say it.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Death is the only permanent thing in our lives; in a morbid way it’s the only thing we can really trust.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“You can promise anything you like,’ says Olli. ‘But the forest will decide.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“What happens, then, if the conspiracy theories hurtling through my mind turn out to be true?”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Midday is a moment of calm.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“In a recessive and ageing community with high unemployment there are relatively few impulsive millionaires.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“I sometimes think about death, but even thinking about it is all but impossible – especially your own death. A second later I’m thinking about something different altogether: today’s shopping list, the business’s outgoings.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Death only comes round once in a lifetime, that much I realise, and maybe I should have put a bit more effort into it.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“He’s about to lend me his car, and out here a car has a significance all of its own; people think of them differently from the way people in the big city do. Out here a car is something almost sacred – more sacred and more untouchable than”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died

“Everybody wants to keep their distance from a man in whose company you never know quite what to expect.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Man Who Died