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The Midnight Library

Book by Matt Haig · 50 quotes · Matt Haig, The Midnight Library, Life

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The Midnight Library Quotes

“Lorenzo married a local English woman called Patricia Brown, who was also getting used to life's disappointments, having exchanged her dream of being an actress for the mundane, daily theatre of the suburban housewife, and whose culinary skills were forever under the ghostly shadow of her dead Puglian mother-in-law and her legendary spaghetti dishes, which, in Lorenzo's eyes, could never be surpassed.”

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“On both sides of her family there had been an unspoken belief that life was meant to fuck you over. Nora's dad, Geoff, had certainly lived a life that seemed to miss its target. He had grown up with only a mother, as his dad died of a heart attack when he was two, cruelly hiding somewhere behind his first memories. Nora's paternal grandmother had been born in rural Ireland but emigrated to England to become a school cleaner, struggling to bring in enough money for food, let alone anything approaching fun.”

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“At first she couldn't see the faces, because the lights were pointing towards her, and beyond that glare everything seemed like darkness. Except for a mesmerizing milky way of camera flashes and phone torches. She could hear them, though. Human beings when there's enough of them together acting in total unison become something else. The collective roar made her think of another kind of animal entirely. It was at first kind of threatening, as if she was Hercules facing the many-headed Hydra who wanted to kill him, but this was a roar of total support, and the power of it gave her a kind of strength. She realised, in that moment, that she was capable of a lot more than she had known.”

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“Oh. Yeah, well, that might be bad. But it might not be. You do realise there are infinite possibilities here? I mean, the multiverse isn't about just some universes. It's not about a handful of universes. It's not even about a lot of universes. It's about an infinite number of universes. Even with you in them. You could be you in any version of the world, however unlikely that world would be. You are only limited by your imagination. You can be very creative with the regrets you want to undo. I once undid a regret about not doing something I'd contemplated as a teenager — doing aerospace engineering and becoming an astronaut — and so in one life I became an astronaut. I haven't been to space. But I became someone who had been there, for a little while. The thing you have to remember is that this is an opportunity and it is rare and we can undo any mistake we made, live any life we want. Any life. Dream big...You can be anything you want to be. Because in one life, you are.”

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“He was close to her now. There was something equally annoying and attractive about Hugo. He exuded an arrogant amorality that made his face something to either slap or kiss, depending on the circumstance. 'In one life we have known each other for years and are married...' he said. 'In most lives I don't know you at all,' she countered, now staring straight at him. 'That's so sad.' 'I don't think so.' 'Really?' 'Really.' She smiled. 'We're special, Nora. We're chosen. No one understands us.' 'No one understands anyone. We're not chosen.' 'The only reason I am still in this life is because of you...' She lunged forward and kissed him.”

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“No. The Book of Regrets is getting lighter. There's a lot of white space in there now...It seems that you have spent all your life saying things that you aren't really thinking. This is one of your barriers.' 'Barriers?' 'Yes. You have a lot of them. They stop you from seeing the truth.' 'About what?' 'About yourself. And you really need to start trying. To see the truth. Because this matters.”

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“When Nora thought of her closest access to happiness, it was music. Yes, she still played the piano and keyboard sometimes, but she had given up creating. She had given up singing. She thought of those happy early pub gigs playing 'Beautiful Sky'. She thought of her brother larking about on stage with her and Ravi and Ella. So now she knew precisely which book to ask for.”

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“This, it seemed, was power. The power of fame. Like those pop icons she had seen on social media, who could say a single word and get a million likes and shares. Total fame was when you reached the point where looking like a hero, or genius, or god, required minimal effort. But the flipside was that it was precarious. It could be equally easy to fall and look like a devil or a villain, or just an arse. Her heart raced, as if she were about to set foot on a tight-rope.”

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“We had all kinds of great. But you were right to finish it. You did the right thing, in the cosmic order of things. There is no rejection, there is only redirection. You know, I've been thinking a lot. About the cosmos. I've been tuning in. And the cosmos has been telling me I need to get my shit together. It's balance, man. What we had was too intense and our lives are too intense and it's like Darwin's third law of motion. About an action leading to a reaction. Something had to give. And you were the one who saw that and now we are just particles floating in the universe that may reconnect one day at the Chateau Marmont...”

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“A former palace,' Joanna told her. 'Designed by a top Brazilian architect. I forget his name.' She looked it up. 'Oscar Niemeyer,' she said after a moment. 'Modernist. But this is meant to be more opulent than his usual stuff. Best hotel in Brazil...' And then Nora saw a small crowd of people holding out their phones with outstretched arms, as if beggars with bowls, filming her arrival.”

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“There was a link to a TED talk she had given about the value of stamina in sport, and training, and life. It had over a million views. As she began to watch it, Nora felt as though she was watching someone else. This woman was confident, commanded the stage, had great posture, smiled naturally as she spoke, and managed to make the crowd smile and laugh and clap and nod their heads at all the right moments.”

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“People with stamina aren't made any differently to anyone else,' she was saying. 'The only difference is they have a clear goal in mind, and a determination to get there. Stamina is essential to stay focused in a life filled with distraction. It is the ability to stick to a task when your body and mind are at their limit, the ability to keep your head down, swimming in your lane, without looking around, worrying who might take over you...”

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