“We're all in the end-of-your-life book-club, whether we acknowledge it or not; each book we read may well be the last, each conversation the final one.”
―
Will Schwalbe,
The End of Your Life Book Club
“One of the many things I love about bound books is their sheer physicality. Electronic books live out of sight and out of mind. But printed books have body, presence. ... I often seek electronic books, but they never come after me. They may make me feel, but I can't feel them. They are all soul with no flesh, no texture, and no weight.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“The greatest gift you can give anyone is your undivided attention...” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“Reading isn't the opposite of doing, it's the opposite of dying.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“We all owe everyone for everything that happens in our lives. But it's not owing like a debt to one person--it's really that we owe everyone for everything. Our whole lives can change in an instant--so each person that keeps that from happening, no matter how small a role they play, is also responsible for all of it. Just by giving friendship and love, you keep the people around you from giving up--and each expression of friendship or love may be the one that makes all the difference.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“Of course you could do more - you can always do more, and you should do more - but still, the important things is to do what you can, whenever you can. You just do your best, and that's all you can do. Too many people use the excuse that they don't think they can do enough, so they decide they don't have to to do anything. There's never a good excuse for not doing anything - even if it's just to sign something, or send a small contribution, or invite a newly settled refugee family over for Thanksgiving.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“We all have a lot more to read than we can read and a lot more to do than we can do.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“That's one of the amazing things great books like this do - they don't just get you to see the world differently, they get you to look at people, the people all around you, differently.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“Mom had always taught all of us to examine decisions by reversibility--that is, to hedge our bets. When you couldn't decide between two things, she suggested you choose the one that allowed you to change course if necessary. Not the road less traveled but the road with the exit ramp.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“...when you're with someone who is dying, you may need to celebrate the past, live the present, and mourn the future all at the same time.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“The world is complicated,’ she added. ‘You don’t have to have one emotion at a time.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“What are you reading? isn’t a simple question when asked with genuine curiosity; it’s really a way of asking, Who are you now and who are you becoming?” ― Will Schwalbe, Books for Living
“Mom taught me not to look away from the worst but to believe that we can all do better. She never wavered in her conviction that books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books, in whatever format you choose - electronic (even though that wasn't for her) or printed, or audio - is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in human conversation. Mom taught me that you can make a difference in the world and that books really do matter: they're how we know what we need to do in life, and how we tell others. Mom also showed me, over the course of two years and dozens of books and hundreds of hours in hospitals, that books can be how we get closer to each other, and stay close, even in the case of a mother and son who were very close to begin with, and even after one of them has died.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“But it takes so little to help people, and people really do help each other, even people with very little themselves. And it’s not just about second chances. Most people deserve an endless number of chances.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“If I'd waited until I was well rested to read, I never would have read anything.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“Evil almost always starts with small cruelties.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“That's one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we can all talk about when we don't want to talk about ourselves.” ― Will Schwalbe
“I often forget that other people's stories aren't simply introductions to my own more engaging, more dramatic, more relevant, and better-told tales, but rather ends in themselves, tales I can learn from or repeat or dissect or savor.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“He was the smartest and best-read person any of us had every known, but he wore his learning so lightly and had such curiosity about other people that he had the ability to make everyone around him feel smart and well-read.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“One of the many things I love about bound books is their sheer physicality. Electronic books live out of sight and out of mind. But printed books have body, presence. ... I often seek electronic books, but they never come after me. They may make me feel, but I can't feel them. They are all soul with no flesh, no texture, and no weight.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“The greatest gift you can give anyone is your undivided attention...” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“Reading isn't the opposite of doing, it's the opposite of dying.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“We all owe everyone for everything that happens in our lives. But it's not owing like a debt to one person--it's really that we owe everyone for everything. Our whole lives can change in an instant--so each person that keeps that from happening, no matter how small a role they play, is also responsible for all of it. Just by giving friendship and love, you keep the people around you from giving up--and each expression of friendship or love may be the one that makes all the difference.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“Of course you could do more - you can always do more, and you should do more - but still, the important things is to do what you can, whenever you can. You just do your best, and that's all you can do. Too many people use the excuse that they don't think they can do enough, so they decide they don't have to to do anything. There's never a good excuse for not doing anything - even if it's just to sign something, or send a small contribution, or invite a newly settled refugee family over for Thanksgiving.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“We all have a lot more to read than we can read and a lot more to do than we can do.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“That's one of the amazing things great books like this do - they don't just get you to see the world differently, they get you to look at people, the people all around you, differently.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“Mom had always taught all of us to examine decisions by reversibility--that is, to hedge our bets. When you couldn't decide between two things, she suggested you choose the one that allowed you to change course if necessary. Not the road less traveled but the road with the exit ramp.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“...when you're with someone who is dying, you may need to celebrate the past, live the present, and mourn the future all at the same time.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“The world is complicated,’ she added. ‘You don’t have to have one emotion at a time.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“What are you reading? isn’t a simple question when asked with genuine curiosity; it’s really a way of asking, Who are you now and who are you becoming?” ― Will Schwalbe, Books for Living
“Mom taught me not to look away from the worst but to believe that we can all do better. She never wavered in her conviction that books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books, in whatever format you choose - electronic (even though that wasn't for her) or printed, or audio - is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in human conversation. Mom taught me that you can make a difference in the world and that books really do matter: they're how we know what we need to do in life, and how we tell others. Mom also showed me, over the course of two years and dozens of books and hundreds of hours in hospitals, that books can be how we get closer to each other, and stay close, even in the case of a mother and son who were very close to begin with, and even after one of them has died.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“But it takes so little to help people, and people really do help each other, even people with very little themselves. And it’s not just about second chances. Most people deserve an endless number of chances.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“If I'd waited until I was well rested to read, I never would have read anything.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“Evil almost always starts with small cruelties.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“That's one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we can all talk about when we don't want to talk about ourselves.” ― Will Schwalbe
“I often forget that other people's stories aren't simply introductions to my own more engaging, more dramatic, more relevant, and better-told tales, but rather ends in themselves, tales I can learn from or repeat or dissect or savor.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
“He was the smartest and best-read person any of us had every known, but he wore his learning so lightly and had such curiosity about other people that he had the ability to make everyone around him feel smart and well-read.” ― Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
