Piper Caryl

“I began to see all disciplines as creating a vocabulary, a set of tools for understanding human life in a particular way. Great literary works provided their own sets of tools, compelling the reader to use that vocabulary.”
― Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air

“Ted shuts his eyes tightly and tries to think happy thoughts, he isn't very successful. People say that anxiety is fear for no reason, but Ted's brain is very helpful when it comes to providing suggestions. Once he read a book that said that people with neuropsychiatric disorders need to "make friends with their brain," but Ted and Ted's brain are not friends, they're classmates, forced to do a group assignment called "life" together. And it's not going great.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Friends

“Louisa is a teenager, the best kind of human. The evidence for this is very simple: little children think teenagers are the best humans, and teenagers think teenagers are the best humans, the only people who don't think teenagers are the best humans are adults. Which is obviously because adults are the worst kind of humans.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Friends

“Grief is a selfish bacteria, it demands all our attention. Ted doesn't want to be rude to the girl, he just wants to be alone, he just needs silence so he can hear the artist's voice in his head again. Feel his breath against his skin. You don't wish for happiness when you have lost the love of your life, because you can't even imagine ever feeling happy again. All you wish for is peace, calm, a long night's sleep. You dream of nothing but being able to forgive time for making us old. For not letting us stay on a pier with our best friends. For letting summers end.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Friends