Quotes from Julian Barnes, Levels of Life

There is a grotesquerie to grief as well. You lose the sense of your existence being rational, or justifiable. You feel absurd.

Throw off your grief, ' doubters imply, 'and we can all go back to pretending death doesn't exist, or at least is comfortably far away.

The final tormenting, unanswerable question: what is 'success' in mourning?