Frederik Backman > Quotes

“The problem is that everything is relative. Happiness is based on expectations and we have the internet now. A whole world constantly asking us, "But is your life as perfect as this? Well, how about now? Is it as perfect as this? If it isn't, change it!!" The truth of course is, that if people really were as happy as they look on the internet, they wouldn't spend so much damn time on the internet. Because no one who's having a really good day spends half of it taking pictures of themselves. Anyone can nurture a myth about their life if they have enough manure. So, if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that's probably because it's full of shit.”
― Frederik Backman

“We don't have a plan, we just do our best to get through the day because there'll be another one coming along tomorrow. Sometimes it hurts, it really hurts. For no other reason than the fact that our skin doesn't feel like it's ours. Sometimes we panic, because the bills need paying and we have to be grown up and we don't know how. Because it's so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown up. Because everyone loves someone. And anyone who loves someone has had those desperate nights where we lie awake trying to figure out how we can afford to carry on being human beings. Sometimes that makes us do things that seem ridiculous in hindsight but which felt like the only way out, at the time. One, single, really bad idea. That's all it takes.”
― Frederik Backman

“Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes much easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love, because love is hard. It makes demands. Hate is simple.”
― Frederik Backman

“At the end of your career you're trying to find a point to it all, and at the start of it you're looking for a purpose.”
― Frederik Backman

“We don't have a plan, we just do our best to get through the day because there'll be another one coming along tomorrow. Sometimes it hurts, it really hurts. For no other reason than the fact that our skin doesn't feel like it's ours. Sometimes we panic, because the bills need paying and we have to be grown up and we don't know how. Because it's so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown up.
Because everyone loves someone. And anyone who loves someone has had those desperate nights where we lie awake trying to figure out how we can afford to carry on being human beings. Sometimes that makes us do things that seem ridiculous in hindsight but which felt like the only way out, at the time. One, single, really bad idea. That's all it takes.”
― Frederik Backman

“It's a grandmother's prerogative never to have to show her worst sides to her grandchild, Else. Never to have to talk about what she was like before she became a grandmother.”
― Frederik Backman

“Perhaps we hurried past each other in a crowd today, and neither of us noticed, and the fibers of your coat brushed against mine for single moment and then we were gone. I don't know who you are.
But when you get home this evening, when this day is over and the night takes us, allow yourself a deep breath. Because we made it through this day as well.
There'll be another one along tomorrow.”
― Frederik Backman

“Sometimes it's nice if someone says it tastes good without you having to ask every time, you get what I mean?”
― Frederik Backman

“A time like that comes for every man, when he chooses what sort of man he wants to be. And if you don’t know the story, you don’t know the man.”
― Frederik Backman

“Anyone can nurture a myth about their life if they have enough manure, so if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that's probably because it's full of shit”
― Frederik Backman

“E voie sa furi? Nu, nu e voie sa furi. Suntem de acord. Doar daca furi inima cuiva, ca asta e romantic.”
― Frederik Backman

“Se spune ca Dumnezeu rade de cei care isi planuri. Dar se pare ca nu ne invatam minte niciodata.”
― Frederik Backman

“În lumea reală, practică, ea era haos, dar când lumea reală se prăbușește și totul devine haotic, oamenii ca ea sunt singurii funcționali. Asta era superputerea ei.”
― Frederik Backman

“Zara: Draguta, problema cu clasa de mijloc este ca vi se pare ca noi suntem prea bogati ca sa cumparam chestii. Nu suntem. Poti fi doar prea sarac ca sa cumperi lucruri.”
― Frederik Backman

“Her work may be demanding and tough, but it’s straightforward and logical. And being a parent is never like that. If she does everything right at work, things usually go as planned, but it doesn’t matter if she does absolutely everything in the universe correctly as a mother: the very worst can still happen.”
― Frederik Backman

“I have been married forever. It's like that when you get old. In the end there simply wasn't ever a time before him.”
― Frederik Backman

“Uneori e greu sa-ti dai seama care sunt nemernicii mai mari, cei care sparg bancile sau cei care le conduc?”
― Frederik Backman

“Die größte Macht des Todes ist nicht, dass er Menschen sterben lassen kann, sondern dass er die Menschen, die zurückbleiben, dazu bringen kann, nicht mehr leben zu wollen.”
― Frederik Backman

“Din iubire poti face multe lucruri nebunesti. De exemplu sa te casatoresti.”
― Frederik Backman

“Her laughter catches him off guard. As if it's carbonated and someone has poured it too fast and it's bubbling over in all directions. It doesn't fit at all with the grey cement and right-angled garden paving stones. It's an untidy, mischievous laugh that refuses to go along with rules and prescriptions.”
― Frederik Backman

“You never stop being scared of falling from the top, because when you close your eyes you can still feel the pain from each and every step of the way up.”
― Frederik Backman

“Don’t psychopaths go for walks, then”
― Frederik Backman

“Ove’s wife decided on principle that she’d let Ove repaint one of the rooms in their house every six months. Or, to be more exact, she decided she wanted a different color in one of the rooms once every six months. And when she said as much to Ove he told her that she might as well forget it. And then she called a decorator for an estimate. And then she told Ove how much she was going to pay the decorator. And then Ove went to fetch his painting stool.”
― Frederik Backman

“The most expensive thing you can buy in the most densely populated places on the planet is distance.”
― Frederik Backman

“You’re dancing on the inside, Ove, when no one’s watching.”
― Frederik Backman

“...nu ne dorim sa-i vedem pe copiii nostri nici urmandu-si propriile visuri, nici calcandu-ne pe urme. Ci noi vrem sa le calcam pe urme, cand ei ne urmeaza visurile.”
― Frederik Backman

“Ted explains just how bereavement feels:
'I could never have lived there without him. I would just have lain awake all night waiting for him to come home. I would have had to throw away all the eggs, because he was the only one who ate them, but I would have forgotten not to buy them. I would have forgotten that he didn't exist, all the time. I would have gotten angry because the light in the bathroom was turned off, because I used to get so annoyed with him for always leaving it on. I would have saved all his shoes, all his shirts, and I would have been angry with the spring and hated flowers when they appeared because they drowned out the last smells of him. I would have always laid the table for two on the balcony. I would have had to eat all the popcorn myself. I would never have been able to pick a film.”
― Frederik Backman

“Personne n’avait jamais demandé à Ove comment il vivait avant leur rencontre. Mais si on lui avait posé la question, il aurait répondu qu’il ne vivait pas”
― Frederik Backman

“This is her final act of love. To make herself invisible.”
― Frederik Backman

“Mamas Kleid riecht nach Boutique. Die Wolkentiere fliegen tief unten.

Und das ist der Tag, an dem Sie Oma begraben.”
― Frederik Backman