“There are things that have to be forgotten if you want to go on living.”

“People always talk about how hard it can be to remember things - where they left their keys, or the name of an acquaintance - but no one ever talks about how much effort we put into forgetting. I am exhausted from the effort to forget... There are things that have to be forgotten if you want to go on living.”

“I have learned that you can go anywhere you want to go and do anything you want to do and buy all the things that you want to buy and meet all the people that you want to meet and learn all the things that you desire to learn and if you do all these things but are not madly in love: you have still not begun to live.”

“You can choose to die. You can choose to run... but dying alone won't change a thing. Trust me on that one. If you really want things to change... you're going to have to live.”

“People become very upset,' Gavo tells me, 'when they find out they are going to die' . . . 'They behave very strangely,' he says. 'They are suddenly filled with life. Suddenly they want to fight for things, ask questions. They want to throw hot water in your face, or beat you senseless with an umbrella, or hit you in the head with a rock. Suddenly they remember the things they have to do, people they have forgotten.”

“What you don't want is always going to be with youWhat you want is never going to be with youWhere you don't want to go, you have to goAnd the moment you think you're going to live more, you're going to die”