Cassie

“. . . One of the most human things about anxiety is that we try to cure chaos with chaos. Someone who has got themselves into a catastrophic situation rarely retreats from it, we're far more inclined to carry on even faster. We've created lives where we can watch other people crash into the wall but still hope that somehow we're going to pass straight through it. The closer we get, the more confidently we believe that some unlikely solution is miraculously going to save us, while everyone watching us is just waiting for the crash."

. . . So Zara asked, without any sarcasm, "Have you learned any theories about why people behave like that, then?"

"Hundreds," The psychologist smiled.

"Which one do you believe?"

"I believe the one that says that if you do it for long enough, it can become impossible to tell the difference between flying and falling.”
― Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

“I think we allow ourselves to hurt the people we love the most because we know they won’t abandon us.”
― Claire Lombardo, The Most Fun We Ever Had

“That's the power of literature, you know, it can act like little love letters between two people who can only explain their feelings by pointing at other people's.”
― Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

“Sweetie, it all looks so black and white right now, I know. But that's not how life ends up being. There's... It's mostly gray areas. It's not
this versus that. It's just... Things come at you, and you twitch in one direction or the other, and suddenly you're graduating from medical school." She drummed her fingers on the kitchen table. "Or you're an exhausted mother of four trying not to burn the pork chops while your teenage daughter grills you about your lack of tutelage.”
― Claire Lombardo, The Most Fun We Ever Had