The paper, the stapler, the staples, the tape. It makes me sick. Physical things. Forty years of loving someone becomes staples and tape.

Oskar Schell: If the sun were to explode, you wouldn't even know about it for 8 minutes because thats how long it takes for light to travel to us. For eight minutes the world would still be bright and it would still feel warm. It was a year since my dad died and I could feel my eight minutes with him... were running out.

Everything I did, I did because I thought it was the correct thing to do… I am not a hero, it is true… But I am not a bad person, either.

Words are capable of making experience more vivid, and also of organizing it. They can scare us, and they can comfort us.

Not responding is a response - we are equally responsible for what we don't do.

There's nothing wrong with not understanding yourself.

I did not need to know if he could love me. I needed to know if he could need me.