Quotes from Matt Haig

Every life contains many millions of decisions. Some big, some small. But every time one decision is taken over another, the outcomes differ. An irreversible variation occurs, which in turn leads to further variations . .

mental well-being counts as much as physical well-being—indeed, that it is part of physical well-being.

The quiet made her realise how much noise there was elsewhere in the world. Here, noise had meaning.

Because a pawn is never just a pawn. A pawn is a queen-in-waiting. All you need to do is find a way to keep moving forward.

I need 'closure' as people say these days. Though you can never close the past. The most you can do with it is accept it.

You don't have to continually im prove yourself to love yourself. Love is not something you de serve only if you reach a goal. The world is one of pressure but don't let it squeeze your self compassion. You were born wor thy of love and you remain wor thy of love. Be kind to yourself.

When you have a bout of mental illness for the first time, you imagine this is how your life is going to be for ever. You will have depression punctuated by panic attacks and that is how things will stay. And that was terrifying. The claustrophobia of it. There seemed no way out.

cunt   The worst thing humans can be called is their point of origin. This says a lot.

But it is sometimes more fun to explore than to know. And you might find that you love the voyage in all its stumbling uncertainty.

Magic can be found everywhere, if you know how to look for it. ... And where there is magic, there was hope.

The only reason I am still in this life is because of you . . .' She lunged forward and kissed him.

A Chihuahua with cataracts tried to have sex with her right leg. 'Stop that, Pedro

You get near a black hole and the gravitational pull drags you into its bleak, dark reality.

And . . . and the thing is . . . the thing is . . . what we consider to be the most successful route for us to take, actually isn't. Because too often our view of success is about some external bullshit idea of achievement–an Olympic medal, the ideal husband, a good salary. And we have all these metrics that we try and reach. When really success isn't something you measure, and life isn't a race you can win. It's all . . . bollocks, actually . . .

I couldn't sleep. Of course I couldn't. I had a whole universe to worry about.

It occurred to me that human beings didn't live beyond a hundred because they simply weren't up for it. Psychologically, I mean.

Cada vida está conformada por muchos millones de decisiones. Algunas importantes, otras banales. Cada vez que se elige una opción en lugar de otra, se produce un resultado diferente. Una variación irreversible, que a su vez conduce a otras variaciones.»

When things start to happen, other things start to happen. But sometimes it seems there is no explanation as to why the things are happening – why all the buses are coming along at once – why life's moments of luck and pain arrive in clusters. All we can do is observe the pattern, the rhythm, and then live it.

As well as being highly critical of everything Nora did, and everything Nora wanted, and everything Nora believed, unless it was related to swimming, Nora had also felt that simply to be in his presence was to commit some kind of invisible crime. Ever since the ligament injury that thwarted his rugby career, he'd had a sincere conviction that the universe was against him. And Nora was, at least she felt, considered by him as part of that same universal plan.

But writing down darkness didn't make me feel dark. I already felt dark. Writing things down brought that inner darkness into external light.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

As Montaigne put it, "He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.

She took a deep breath, as if the question were something she had to swim under.

The only thing we need is to exist.