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Quote by Matt Haig

“And have you never walked into a room and wondered what you came in for? Have you never forgotten what you just did? Have you never blanked our or misremembered what you were just doing?”

Quote by Matt Haig

Book:The Midnight Library

Work

The Midnight Library

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Author

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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“Nora let out a deep exhale. 'Dan wasn't like that.' 'People change,' said Mrs. Elm, still looking at the chessboard. Her hand lingered over a bishop. Nora re-thought. 'Or maybe he was like that and I just didn't see it.”

Matt Haig The Midnight Library

Book:The Midnight Library

Source: The Midnight Library

“So,' wondered Mrs. Elm, look at Nora. 'What are you feeling?' 'Like I still want to die. I have wanted to die for quite a while. I have carefully calculated that the pain of me living as the bloody disaster that is myself is greater than the pain anyone else will feel if I were to die. In fact, I'm sure it would be a relief. I'm not useful to anyone. I was bad at work. I have disappointed everyone. I am a waste of a carbon footprint, to be honest. I hurt people. I have no one left. Not even poor old Volts, who died because I couldn't look after a cat properly. I want to die. My life is a disaster. And I want it to end. I am not cut out for living. And there is no point going through all this. Because I am clearly destined to be unhappy in other lives too. That is just me. I add nothing. I am wallowing in self-pity. I want to die.”

Matt Haig The Midnight Library

Book:The Midnight Library

Source: The Midnight Library

“Mrs. Elm studied Nora hard, as if reading a passage in a book she had read before but had just found it contained a new meaning. 'Want,' she told her, in a measured tone, 'is an interesting word. It means lack. Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely. Maybe you have a lack problem rather than a want problem. Maybe there is a life that you really want to live.”

Matt Haig The Midnight Library

Book:The Midnight Library

Source: The Midnight Library

“And one into infinity is a very small fraction indeed.”

Matt Haig The Midnight Library

Book:The Midnight Library

Source: The Midnight Library

“Do you need another look at The Book of Regrets?' Nora scrunched her nose and gave a minute shake of her head. She remembered the feeling of being suffocated by so much regret. 'No.' 'What about your cat? What was his name again?' 'Voltaire. It was a bit pretentious, and he wasn't really a pretentious cat, so I just called him Volts for short. Sometimes Voltsy, if I was feeling jovial. Which was rare, obviously. I couldn't even finalise a name for a cat.”

Matt Haig The Midnight Library

Book:The Midnight Library

Source: The Midnight Library

“Why did you lie?' 'I wasn't lying. I asked you what your cat's name was. I never said I didn't know what your cat's name was. Do you understand the difference? I just wanted you to say his name, so that you would feel something.”

Matt Haig The Midnight Library

Book:The Midnight Library

Source: The Midnight Library

“Well, you don't see yourself as a bad cat owner any more. You looked after him as well as he could have been looked after. He loved you as much as you loved him, and maybe he didn't want you to see him die. You see, cats know. They understand when their time is up. He went outside because he was going to die, and he knew it.”

Matt Haig The Midnight Library

Book:The Midnight Library

Source: The Midnight Library

“I knew then that I hadn't stopped believing in God. I'd just stopped believing God cared. There might be a God, Clary, and there might not, but I don't think it matters. Either way we're on our own.”

Book:City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“Once she had flicked to the last page, she saw one of her very last regrets — 'I was bad at looking after Voltaire' — slowly disappear from the page. The letters fading like retreating strangers in a fog.”

Matt Haig The Midnight Library

Book:The Midnight Library

Source: The Midnight Library

“So, you see? Sometimes regrets aren't based on fact at all. Sometimes regrets are just...' She searched for the appropriate term and found it. 'A load of bullshit.”

Matt Haig The Midnight Library

Book:The Midnight Library

Source: The Midnight Library