My Year Abroad Quotes

“A quantum of sweetness... what he meant was not just that a person should have a rightful share of whatever way you’d like to define sweetness, but also that the sweetness itself carries a special levy of contemplation of the infinitudes of sweetness that will go untasted, be forever unknown.”
― Chang-rae Lee, My Year Abroad

“Most of us can’t accept that the gig is ours, so we lurk around, we tug and scratch at ourselves as if in borrowed skins, and never fully belong to the moments that can steadily add up to nothing a lot quicker than you think.”
― Chang-rae Lee, My Year Abroad

“life at its most complete and comfortable can feel like you’ve suddenly discovered yourself sous-viding in a plunge tub set exactly at your body temperature. One day the water’s no longer fine, which is when you crave a chill in your gut, a fresh sear on your chicken-tender ass, something to pep you the fuck up.”
― Chang-rae Lee, My Year Abroad

“so we texted about getting some “quality time” in then. We were long practiced at assuring this, which worked for us. But we all know the truth: real “quality time” happens without you knowing it’s happening,”
― Chang-rae Lee, My Year Abroad

“For let’s be honest, who is entirely well, lacking one? I mean throughout your life, so that you can proceed steadily, confidently, and without certain inevitable collapses?”
― Chang-rae Lee, My Year Abroad

“you could only guess whether things were waxing or waning in this existence, and that the best we could ever do was commemorate any beauty.”
― Chang-rae Lee, My Year Abroad

“keeping as idly busy as possible on apps and websites, which may be the best inventions for not mourning when you’re mourning.”
― Chang-rae Lee, My Year Abroad

“theory is an extremely complicated thing, as varied and mixed-up and contradictory as life itself.”
― Chang-rae Lee, My Year Abroad

“Because if you imagine yourself truly alone, islanded off from everybody else, you end up facing, whether you want to or not, a lot of gnarly, unsettling questions.”
― Chang-rae Lee, My Year Abroad