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The Midnight Library

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Matt Haig
Matt Haig

Matt Haig is a British novelist born in 1975. His works are known for their humor and profound emotional insight, enjoying great popularity among readers. Haig's writing spans a variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and realism. more

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“If I was religious, I'd say it was God. And as God is probably someone we can't see or comprehend then He — or She — or whichever pronoun God is — becomes an image of someone good we have known in our lives. And if I wasn't religious — which I'm not — I would think that the human brain can't handle the complexity of an open quantum wave function and so it organises or translates this complexity into something it understands. A librarian in a library. A friendly uncle in a video store. Et cetera.”

Matt HaigThe Midnight Library
Book:The Midnight Library
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“There's an old, frequently-used definition of insanity, which is "performing the same action over and over, expecting different results."... Now, I'm no doctor, but I am on TV. And in my professional opinion, George Bush is a paranoid schizophrenic. ... ...Other symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia are: Do you see things that aren't there? Such as a link between 9/11 and Iraq? Do you - do you feel things that you shouldn't be feeling, like a sense of accomplishment? Do you have trouble organizing words into a coherent sentence? Do you hear voices that aren't really there? Like, oh, I don't know, your imaginary friend, Jesus? Telling you to start a war in the Middle East. Well, guess what? There are a large number of people out there also suffering from the same delusions, because there are Republicans, there are conservatives, and then there are the Bushies. This is the 29 percent of Americans who still think he's doing "a heck of a job, Whitey." And I don't believe that it's coincidence that almost the same number of Americans - 25 percent - told a recent pollster that they believe that this year - this year, 2007 - would bring the Second Coming of Christ! I have a hunch these are the same people. Because, if you think that you're going to meet Jesus before they cancel "Ugly Betty," then you're used to doing things by faith. And if you have so much blind faith that you think this war is winnable, you're nuts and you shouldn't be allowed near a voting booth.”

HumorReligion
Author:Bill Maher
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“She knew that everything humans see is a simplification. A human sees the world in three dimensions. That is a simplification. Humans are fundamentally limited, generalising creatures, living on auto-pilot, who straighten out curved streets in their minds, which explains why they get lost all the time. 'It's like how humans never see the second hand of a clock mid-tick,' said Nora.”

Matt HaigThe Midnight Library
Book:The Midnight Library
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“Another thing that is strange,' Hugo said. 'At any point in this conversation you or I could disappear.' 'Have you seen that happen?' Nora took the mug Hugo handed her. 'Yeah. A few times. It's freaky. But no one else would notice. They become a bit vague with their memory for the last day, but you would be surprised. If you went back to the library right now, and I was still standing here talking to you in the kitchen, you would say something like, "My mind's just gone blank — what were we talking about?", and then I'd realise what had happened and I'd say we were talking about glaciers and you'd bombard me with facts about them. And your brain would fill in the gaps and make up a narrative about what just happened.”

Matt HaigThe Midnight Library
Book:The Midnight Library
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“But what if one day there is no video store?' Nora thought about Mrs. Elm, panicking at the computer, and the flickering lights in the library. 'What if one day you disappear for good? Before you have found a life to settle in?' He shrugged, 'Then I will die. And it means I would have died anyway. In the life I lived before, I kind of like being a slider. I like imperfection. I like keeping death as an option. I like never having to settle.' 'I think my situation is different. I think my death is more imminent. If I don't find a life to live in pretty soon, I think I'll be gone for good.”

Matt HaigThe Midnight Library
Book:The Midnight Library
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