Quotes from Mike Gayle

None of us knew how to come back from this moment. This was where the script ended and we all had to improvise.

Grief sends your thinking into all kinds of weird places. It makes you come up with all sorts of strange rules.

I learned that if someone tells you to be on the safe side lots of times then after a while they do not need to say it. After a while you just say it to yourself in your head like, 'I had better not do that, just to be on the safe side.

restaurant in Broadway which

it looks a little eccentric or at the very least as though her washing machine's broken and this outfit is made up of the only clean clothes she could find.

all thoughts, no matter how altruistic, always end up being self-centred in some way if you give them long enough

Extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people like you and me, but only if we open ourselves up enough to let them.

You only live once so you've got to get it right

The thing about work is that it's a habit. If you do it enough. it sort of sticks so that you feel wrong if you're not doing something.

Even thinking about working makes me feel queasy. This I know makes me sound a lot like I have no ambition. It presents me as almost having given up on life. It suggests that I'm content to just exist like some corpulent bluebottle basking in the sunshine on the windowsill of life.

You know, I never was your dream girl, was I? And you certainly weren't my dream guy. We just sort of drifted together. And you've got to know that if things had stayed the same and my dream guy had turned up—" "I would've been in the way." "And vice versa.

He was scared and he felt vulnerable and the last thing on earth he wanted was to try to make friends with these strangers. He wished with all his heart that Joyce were here with him. After all, it was always easier to meet new people if there were two of you. It gave you confidence and made you feel at ease. Look, it said to the world, I already have one friend so I can't be all that bad. And Joyce always made him feel like his best self anyway, so there would be no resisting him.

I learned that if someone tells you to be on the safe side lots of times then after a while they do not need to say it.

You've changed my mind,' she said shyly. I noted her curious choice of words but refused to let her say any more. Additional conversation would only confuse the matter. If I could change her mind without knowing it, I could just as easily change it back again by accident.

You see, the broccoli was yours and I give it back to you. The remote control is yours but I used to use it most and so now I give it back to you. The wardrobe should've been yours on that day we argued in Ikea, so I give it to you now. And finally this ring, in your hand, which represents my heart, is, was, and will always be yours. Even if you turn me down, I can't ever take it back because it's yours forever.

The one thing I don't glean any information about is her husband, so I let my imagination go to town. I imagine he's called Hugo, works at an art college and specialises in multimedia (whatever that is). At the weekend he plays football and squash and is currently in training for the London Marathon. In addition to this he plays the saxophone, is younger than me, and permanently smells of cinnamon. Make no mistake, Hugo is a right tosser.

The one think i don't glean any information about is her husband, so I let my imagination go to town. I imagine he's called Hugo, works at an art college and specialises in multimedia (whatever that is). At the weekend he plays football and squash and is currently in training for the London Marathon. In addition to this he plays the saxophone, is younger than me, and permanently smells of cinnamon. Make no mistake, Hugo is a right tosser.

Hubert did not want to go into this room. He was scared and he felt vulnerable and the last think on earth he wanted was to try to make friends with these strangers. He wished with all his heart that Joyce were here with him. After all, it was always easier to meet new people if there were two of you. It gave you confidence and made you feel at ease. Look, it said to the world, I already have one friend so I can't be all that bad.

I'd sooner be alone forever than settle for anything less.

Talking about relationships isn't gloomy - it's therapy

Because that's the thing about grief no one ever tells you: it's greedy. You don't notice at first because you're still in shock, and there's so much to do, from obtaining death certificates to canceling utility contracts, but hour by hour, day by day, it eats up every last scrap of energy you have, leaving you spent and empty.

Idiots of the world listen up:forty is the end of the race, the deadline of deadlines and the point at which excuses are no longer permitted.

I'm telling you this for one reason and one reason only: No matter how sure you are of someone's love, it's always nice to hear it.

In a relationship the details are everything because they remind you - just when you need to be reminded the most - why you fell in love with someone in the first place.