The Last Devil to Die Quotes

“But, however much life teaches you that nothing lasts, it is still a shock when it disappears. When the man you love with every fibre starts returning to the stars, an atom at a time.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“We think time travels forward, marches on in a straight line, and so we alongside it to keep up. Hurry, hurry, mustn't fall behind. But it doesn't, you see. Time just swirls around us. Every thing is always present. The things we've done, the people we've loved, the people we've hurt, they're all still here?”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Everyone who dies is alive. We call people "dead" because we need a word for it, but "dead" just means that time has stopped moving forward for that person? You understand? No one dies, not really.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“We complain about life so endlessly and so bitterly, and yet we cling to it so dearly? Surely that makes no sense?”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“God cries every time someone lies to a Canadian.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“I know from experience that grief rides alone.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Days of death are days when we weigh our relationship with love in our bare hands. Days when we remember what has gone, and fear what is to come. The joy love brings, and the price we pay. When we give thanks but also pray for mercy.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“What is it about Christmas? Everything that’s wrong seems worse, and everything that’s right seems better.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Had she really understood then that those were the best of times? That she was in heaven? She thinks she did understand, yes. Understood she had been given a great gift. Doing the crossword in a train carriage, Stephen with a can of beer ("I will only drink beer on trains, nowhere else, don't ask me why"), glasses halfway down his nose, reading out clues. The real secret was that when they looked at each other, they each thought they had the better deal.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“I don’t know why we’re on this earth,” says Stephen. “Truly I don’t. But if I wanted to find the answer, I would begin with how much I love you.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Day after day, mission after mission, ridding the world of evil? Waiting for the last devil to die? What a joke. New devils will always spring up, like daffodils in springtime.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“The real secret was that when they looked at each other, they each thought they had the better deal. But, however much life teaches you that nothing lasts, it is still a shock when it disappears. When the man you love with every fiber starts returning to the stars, an atom at a time.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Mankind finds futility very hard to stomach. People find all sorts of things to give their brief lives meaning. Religion, football, astrology, social media. Valiant efforts all, but everyone knows, deep, deep down, that life is both a random occurrence and a losing battle. None of us will be remembered. These days will all be covered, in time, by the sands.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Dear Stephen,’ he begins. ‘This is a difficult letter to write, but I know it will be a great deal more difficult to read. I will come straight to it. I believe you are in the early stages of dementia, possibly Alzheimer’s.’ Elizabeth can hear her heart beating through her chest. Who on earth has chosen to shatter their privacy this way? Who even knows? Her friends? Has one of them written? They wouldn’t dare, not without asking. Not Ibrahim, surely? He might dare. ‘I am not an expert, but it is something I have been looking into. You are forgetting things, and you are getting confused. I know full well what you will say – “But I’ve always forgotten things. I’ve always been confused!” – and you are right, of course, but this, Stephen, is of a different order. Something is not right with you, and everything I read points in just one direction.’ ‘Stephen,’ says Elizabeth, but he gently gestures for hush. ‘You must also know that dementia points in just one direction. Once you start to descend the slope, and please believe me when I say you have started, there is no return. There may be footholds here and there, there may be ledges on which to rest, and the view may still be beautiful from time to time, but you will not clamber back up.’ ‘Stephen, who wrote you this letter?’ Elizabeth asks. Stephen holds up a finger, asking her to be patient a few moments more. Elizabeth’s fury is decreasing. The letter is something she should have written to him herself. This should not have been left to a stranger. Stephen starts”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“They say that time softens the pain, but that’s a fairy tale. Who would ever love again if anyone actually told the truth? I’m afraid there are some days when I could still rip out my own heart and weep myself hollow for Gerry. Some days? Every day.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Quite so,” agrees Stephen, his voice quiet. “Nail hit well and truly on the head there, old girl. We think time travels forward, marches on in a straight line, and so we hurry alongside it to keep up. Hurry, hurry, mustn’t fall behind. But it doesn’t, you see. Time just swirls around us. Everything is always present. The things we’ve done, the people we’ve loved, the people we’ve hurt, they’re all still here.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Our memories are no less real than whatever moment in which we happen to be living.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Save your good luck for big things, and your bad luck for small things.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“That’s the thing about Coopers Chase. You’d imagine it was quiet and sedate, like a village pond on a summer’s day. But in truth it never stops moving, it’s always in motion. And that motion is ageing, and death, and love, and grief, and final snatched moments and opportunities grasped. The urgency of old age. There’s nothing that makes you feel more alive than the certainty of death.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“There comes a point when you look at your photograph albums more often than you watch the news. When you opt out of time, and let it carry on doing its thing while you get on with yours. You simply stop dancing to the beat of the drum.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Love always finds a language.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“I fear I might be barking up the wrong tree with this one. I just hope I can bark up the right tree one of these days. Before I run out of trees. Or before I stop barking altogether.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“That’s what happens when you get older. Too many funerals, not enough weddings.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“The life she had with Stephen will always mean more to her than the life she will now have going forward. She will spend more time there, in that past, she knows that. And, as the world races forward, she will fall further and further back.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“I texted "Happy New Year" to Joanna, and she texted back "HNY," as if the effort of spelling out the words was a bit too much. I texted "Happy New Year" to Victor too, and he texted back. "May you be granted health and wealth and wisdom, and may you see your beauty reflected in those around you," which was much more like it.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“We might see a million white swans, and yet we are not able to say that all swans are white. Yet we see just one black swan, and we can say with absolute certainty that not all swans are white.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Every true soul is unknowable,”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“I need you to talk less. I have a low boredom threshold. I was born with it, the doctors can't do nothing.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“How will life go on now? How is that possible? She hears a car on a distant road. Why on earth is anybody driving? Where is there to go now? Why is the clock in the hall still ticking? Doesn’t it know it stopped days ago?”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

“Elizabeth can fool herself no more, can keep Stephen to herself no longer. The day she knew must arrive was here. She has been losing him, a paragraph at a time, but the chapter is done and the book is close to its end.”
― Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die