Don't waste your time on life.

I don’t know what you’re feeling, I won’t even pretend

I was beginning to understand something about normality. Normality wasn't normal. It couldn't be. If normality were normal, everybody could leave it alone. They could sit back and let normality manifest itself. But people-and especially doctors- had doubts about normality. They weren't sure normality was up the job. And so they felt inclined to give it a boost.

What if you had faith and performed good works, what if you died and went to heaven, and what if all the people you met there were people you didn't like?

College wasn't like the real world. In the real world people dropped names based on their renown. In college, people dropped names based on their obscurity.

In Madeleine's face was a stupidity Mitchell had never seen before. It was the stupidity of all normal people. It was the stupidity of the fortunate and the beautiful, of everybody who got what they wanted in life and so remained unremarkable.

In the end, it wasn't death that surprised her but the stubbornness of life.