No reason to be angry. Anger just distracts from the all-encompassing sadness.

Failing to grapple with complexity actually turns out to be a pretty bad life strategy.

So we gave up. I'd finally had enough of chasing after a ghost who did not want to be seen. We'd failed, maybe, but some mysteries aren't meant to be solved.

Because you are beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence

Nothing has ever looked like that ever in all of human history.

Wow,” I said. “Are you making this up?” “Hazel Grace, could I, with my meager intellectual capacities, make up a letter from Peter Van Houten featuring phrases like ‘our triumphantly digitized contemporaneity’?” “You could not,” I allowed. “Can I, can I have the email address?” “Of course,” Augustus said, like it was not the best gift ever.

You see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town.