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“What if I am dead?' 'Sorry?' 'I mean, in another life. There must be other lives in which I died before today.' Mrs. Elm looked intrigued. 'Isn't that what you wanted?' 'Well, yes, but—' 'You have died an infinite number of times before today, yes. Car accident, drug overdose, drowning, a bout of fatal food poisoning, choking on an apple, choking on a cookie, choking on a vegan hot dog, choking on a non-vegan hot dog, every illness it was possible for you to catch or contract...You have died in every way you can, at any time you could.' 'So, I could open a book and just die?' 'No. Not instantaneously. As with Voltaire, the only lives available here are, well, lives. I mean, you could die in that life, but you won't have died before you enter the life because this Midnight Library is not one of ghosts. It is not a library of corpses. It is a library of possibility. And death is the opposite of possibility. Understand?” — Matt Haig

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What if I am dead?' 'Sorry?' 'I mean, in another life. There must be other lives in which I died before today.' Mrs. Elm looked intrigued. 'Isn't that what you wanted?' 'Well, yes, but—' 'You have died an infinite number of times before today, yes. Car accident, drug overdose, drowning, a bout of fatal food poisoning, choking on an apple, choking on a cookie, choking on a vegan hot dog, choking on a non-vegan hot dog, every illness it was possible for you to catch or contract...You have died in every way you can, at any time you could.' 'So, I could open a book and just die?' 'No. Not instantaneously. As with Voltaire, the only lives available here are, well, lives. I mean, you could die in that life, but you won't have died before you enter the life because this Midnight Library is not one of ghosts. It is not a library of corpses. It is a library of possibility. And death is the opposite of possibility. Understand?
— Matt Haig