pg. 14 “You spent so much time explaining yourself, your work, to others—what it meant, what you were trying to accomplish, why you were trying to accomplish it,

…that it was a relief to simply be with another person to whom you didn’t have to explain anything.

pg. 48 ”There were times when the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain…”

pg. 49 ”And now you’ve been so fucking spoiled by things coming to you so easily that you think everything’s just going to happen for you.”

pg. 74 ”At such times, he envied his friends for the exact same thing he had once pitied them for: the fact that no one had any expectations for them.”

pg. 107 ”None of them really wanted to listen to someone else’s story anyway; they only wanted to tell their own.”

pg. 211 ”I love you,” said Willem

He never knew what to say when Willem said that to him, and yet he always longed for him to say it.

pg. 264 Are you happy? he once asked Jude

I don’t think happiness is for me