“I believed that books might save him because I knew they had so far, and because I knew the people books had saved.”
―
Rebecca Makkai
“But when someone’s gone and you’re the primary keeper of his memory—letting go would be a kind of murder, wouldn’t it? I had so much love for him, even if it was a complicated love, and where is all that love supposed to go? He was gone, so it couldn’t change, it couldn’t turn to indifference. I was stuck with all that love.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“If we could just be on earth at the same place and same time as everyone we loved, if we could be born together and die together, it would be so simple. And it’s not. But listen: You two are on the planet at the same time. You’re in the same place now. That’s a miracle. I just want to say that.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“And was friendship that different in the end from love? You took the possibility of sex out of it, and it was all about the moment anyway. Being here, right now, in someone’s life. Making room for someone in yours.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“It's always a matter, isn't it, of waiting for the world to come unraveled? When things hold together, it's always only temporary.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“I might be the villain of this story.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
“If you had to choose when, in the timeline of the earth, you got to live—wouldn’t you choose the end? You haven’t missed anything, then. You die in 1920, you miss rock and roll. You die in 1600, you miss Mozart. Right? I mean, the horrors pile up, too, but no one wants to die before the end of the story.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“You’ll never know anyone’s marriage but your own. And even then, you’ll only know half of it.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“I believed that books might save him because I knew they had so far, and because I knew the people books had saved. They were college professors and actors and scientists and poets. They got to college and sat on dorm floors drinking coffee, amazed they'd finally found their soul mates. They always dressed a little out of season. Their names were enshrined on the pink cards in the pockets of all the forgotten hardbacks in every library basement in America. If the librarians were lazy enough or nostalgic enough or smart enough, those names would stay there forever.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
“Asher said, "Does it really ever go anywhere?""Does what?""Love. Does it vanish?"Yale looked at his own hand, resting on the dashboard to keep himself steady whenever Asher braked suddenly. "I mean, we never want it to. But it does, doesn't it?"Asher said, "I think that's the saddest thing in the world, the failure of love. Not hatred, but the failure of love.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“Stupid men and their stupid violence. Tearing apart everything good that was ever built. Why couldn't you ever just go after your life without tripping over some idiot's dick?” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“They meant well, all of them. How could she explain that this city was a graveyard? That they were walking every day through streets where there had been a holocaust, a mass murder of neglect and antipathy, that when they stepped through a pocket of cold air, didn’t they understand it was a ghost, it was a boy the world had spat out?” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“Like a good American, I wanted to sue somebody. But like a good librarian, I just sat at my desk and waited.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
“The thing is," Teddy said, "the disease itself feels like a judgment. We've all got a little Jesse Helms on our shoulder, right? If you got it from sleeping with a thousand guys, then it's a judgment on your promiscuity. If you got it from sleeping with one guy once, that's almost worse, it's like a judgment on all of us, like the act itself is the problem and not the number of times you did it. And if you got it because you thought you couldn't, it's a judgment on your hubris. And if you got it because you knew you could and you didn't care, it's a judgment on how much you hate yourself. Isn't that why the world loves Ryan White so much? How could God have it out for some poor kid with a blood disorder? But then people are still being terrible. They're judging him for just being sick, not even for the way he got it.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“And second, everyone is so weird, but they're all completely accepted. It's like, okay, you have a pumpkin head, and that guy's made of tin, and you're a talking chicken, but what the hell, let's do a road trip.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
“I hate that we have to live in the middle of history. We make enough mess on our own.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“This disease has magnified all our mistakes. Some stupid thing you did when you were nineteen, the one time you weren't careful. And it turns out that was the most important day of your life.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“He said, "Everyone knows how short life is. Fiona and I know it especially. But no one ever talks about how long it is.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“I no longer believe I can save people. I've tried, and I've failed, and while I'm sure there are people out there in the world with that particular gift, I'm not one of them...But books, on the other hand: I do still believe that books can save you.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
“But when someone’s gone and you’re the primary keeper of his memory—letting go would be a kind of murder, wouldn’t it? I had so much love for him, even if it was a complicated love, and where is all that love supposed to go? He was gone, so it couldn’t change, it couldn’t turn to indifference. I was stuck with all that love.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“If we could just be on earth at the same place and same time as everyone we loved, if we could be born together and die together, it would be so simple. And it’s not. But listen: You two are on the planet at the same time. You’re in the same place now. That’s a miracle. I just want to say that.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“And was friendship that different in the end from love? You took the possibility of sex out of it, and it was all about the moment anyway. Being here, right now, in someone’s life. Making room for someone in yours.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“It's always a matter, isn't it, of waiting for the world to come unraveled? When things hold together, it's always only temporary.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“I might be the villain of this story.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
“If you had to choose when, in the timeline of the earth, you got to live—wouldn’t you choose the end? You haven’t missed anything, then. You die in 1920, you miss rock and roll. You die in 1600, you miss Mozart. Right? I mean, the horrors pile up, too, but no one wants to die before the end of the story.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“You’ll never know anyone’s marriage but your own. And even then, you’ll only know half of it.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“I believed that books might save him because I knew they had so far, and because I knew the people books had saved. They were college professors and actors and scientists and poets. They got to college and sat on dorm floors drinking coffee, amazed they'd finally found their soul mates. They always dressed a little out of season. Their names were enshrined on the pink cards in the pockets of all the forgotten hardbacks in every library basement in America. If the librarians were lazy enough or nostalgic enough or smart enough, those names would stay there forever.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
“Asher said, "Does it really ever go anywhere?""Does what?""Love. Does it vanish?"Yale looked at his own hand, resting on the dashboard to keep himself steady whenever Asher braked suddenly. "I mean, we never want it to. But it does, doesn't it?"Asher said, "I think that's the saddest thing in the world, the failure of love. Not hatred, but the failure of love.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“Stupid men and their stupid violence. Tearing apart everything good that was ever built. Why couldn't you ever just go after your life without tripping over some idiot's dick?” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“They meant well, all of them. How could she explain that this city was a graveyard? That they were walking every day through streets where there had been a holocaust, a mass murder of neglect and antipathy, that when they stepped through a pocket of cold air, didn’t they understand it was a ghost, it was a boy the world had spat out?” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“Like a good American, I wanted to sue somebody. But like a good librarian, I just sat at my desk and waited.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
“The thing is," Teddy said, "the disease itself feels like a judgment. We've all got a little Jesse Helms on our shoulder, right? If you got it from sleeping with a thousand guys, then it's a judgment on your promiscuity. If you got it from sleeping with one guy once, that's almost worse, it's like a judgment on all of us, like the act itself is the problem and not the number of times you did it. And if you got it because you thought you couldn't, it's a judgment on your hubris. And if you got it because you knew you could and you didn't care, it's a judgment on how much you hate yourself. Isn't that why the world loves Ryan White so much? How could God have it out for some poor kid with a blood disorder? But then people are still being terrible. They're judging him for just being sick, not even for the way he got it.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“And second, everyone is so weird, but they're all completely accepted. It's like, okay, you have a pumpkin head, and that guy's made of tin, and you're a talking chicken, but what the hell, let's do a road trip.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
“I hate that we have to live in the middle of history. We make enough mess on our own.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“This disease has magnified all our mistakes. Some stupid thing you did when you were nineteen, the one time you weren't careful. And it turns out that was the most important day of your life.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“He said, "Everyone knows how short life is. Fiona and I know it especially. But no one ever talks about how long it is.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
“I no longer believe I can save people. I've tried, and I've failed, and while I'm sure there are people out there in the world with that particular gift, I'm not one of them...But books, on the other hand: I do still believe that books can save you.” ― Rebecca Makkai, The Borrower
