Josie

“Stories about boys like him only end with us no longer dreaming of time machines, because if one was ever invented in the distant future, it would already have been used to travel back here by someone who loved him”
― Fredrik Backman, The Winners

“Who decides which… deaths are tragic and which are not? Who decides what is big and what is little? Is it a matter of numbers or physical mass or intelligence? If you are a little creature or a little person dying alone and in pain, you may not remember or know that you are little. If you are in enough pain, you may not remember who or what you are; you may know only your suffering, which is immense… What decides – common sense? Can common sense dictate such things?”
― Mary Gaitskill, Lost Cat

“But Benji still grins, that damn smile that’s as much a bird’s as a bear’s. Then he says:

"You’re already in love with me. You just haven’t realized it yet.”
― Fredrik Backman, The Winners

“Adults always think they can protect children by stopping them from going to dangerous places, but every teenager knows that’s pointless, because the most dangerous place on earth is inside us. Fragile hearts break in palaces and in dark alleys alike.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Friends