Vanesa

“By observing these married couples through his window on Sundays, Lucas has noticed that they often consist of a monkey and a bird, and they have decided to go for a nice stroll together. But the monkey can’t fly, so the bird has to walk. And after a while the monkey gets very annoyed with the bird, because the bird walks so very slowly. So then the bird suggests that maybe it can fly above the monkey instead? And then the monkey gets very, very hurt and says: “Oh! Excuse me then for wanting us to do something together!”
― Fredrik Backman, The Answer Is No

“He’s just happy. It wasn’t even particularly difficult. All he did was to remove the one thing that makes almost all people unhappy: other people. Whatever they want, the answer is no.”
― Fredrik Backman, The Answer Is No

“It’s not that Lucas hates other people. He just really enjoys being where other people aren’t. He works well in groups as long as it’s groups of fewer than two people.”
― Fredrik Backman, The Answer Is No

“More than anything people are supposed to pretend to be happy on the internet so that other people are reminded of how unhappy they themselves are by comparison.”
― Fredrik Backman, The Answer Is No