Crying is you, plus tears.
We all romanticize the people we adore.
You listen to people so that you can imagine them, and you hear all the terrible and wonderful things people do to themselves and to one another, but in the end the listening exposes you even more than it exposes the people you’re trying to listen to.
All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm.
Books – they weren’t ladders out of the abyss, but they were companions.
Love is the most common miracle.
Amsterdam is like the rings of a tree: It gets older as you get closer to the center.
Nerd life is just so much better than regular life.
I want more numbers than I’m likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.
The nature of impending fatherhood is that you are doing something that you’re unqualified to do, and then you become qualified while doing it.
Whether you’re studying electrical engineering or poetry, college is not about maximizing income, it’s about becoming a better and more informed observer of the universe. And for me, at least, that what’s leads to a more fulfilling life.
I love being in cities with lots of other people, because I’m reminded that there are billions of people like me, and we are each stuck inside of our minds, feverishly trying to crawl out to make connections with other people.
You are helpful, and you are loved, and you are forgiven, and you are not alone.
Writing is something you do alone. It’s a profession for introverts who wanna tell you a story but don’t wanna make eye contact while telling it.
What I eventually realized is that the real business of books is not done by awards committees or people who turn trees into paper or editors or agents or even writers. We’re all just facilitators. The real business is done by readers.
She was not an adventure, she was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl.
To be human is to catch the falling person.
When you acknowledge that there is nothing repulsive or unforgivable or shameful about yourself, it becomes easier to be that authentic person and feel like you’re living a less performed life.
I hate the idea that, when it comes to books and learning, hard is often seen as the opposite of fun. It’s strange to me that we should be so quick to give up on a book or a math problem when we are so willing to grapple, for centuries if necessary, with a single level of Angry Birds.
Reading a good book helps us to feel un-alone.