Quotes

How many books have I read until now? Dozens? Hundreds? A thousand? I don't know. I learned to read at the age of five, and since then, I read. Fairy tales at first, children's stories .. I would read when I was supposed to study, to tidy up my room, to work in the house or the garden...

There were many books.. some that I read, liked and forgot, some that I wanted to own, some that I reread several times. One that has been with me for the last eight years.

And now another one. "Read this one, it's good". No fuss, no further explanation. Ok, I ordered the book and kept it in my shelf for a while. Today, I started reading it. Very soon, I realised that you tricked me. You tricked me into believing that this would be just another pleasant book. But it is not. It is one of those that you have to read again and again, that teach you something, that accompany you along a big part of your life, if not your whole - like a manual, an instruction that gives you an answer whenever you're seeking for it.

It is good that you didn't praise the book or very highly recommended it. You hardly knew me back then and cannot have been aware that this would have repelled me, awoken my rebel nature, to reject everything others are too fond of. Maybe you are the same, another point we have in common? Whatever reason it was - thank you. Thank you for having given me this book.

Which book I am talking about? "The five people you meet in heaven". Started it today, finished it today and still, I'll keep reading it.

And now, I want to make an exception to the promise in my very first post - never to copy or steal anything. I will quote a few lines from this book:

"That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind."

"Strangers [...] are just family you have yet to come to know."

"The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone."

"Dying? Not the end of everything. We think it is. But what happens on earth is only the beginning."

"Sacrifice, [...] You made one. I made one. We all make them. [...] Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to."

"All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair."

"Per l'amaro e il dolce [...] for the bitter and the sweet"

"Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that's all."

"Life has to end, [...] love doesn't."

And as it so often goes:

"You made me love you
I didn't want to do it
I didn't want to do it...
You made me love you
and all the time you knew it
and all the time you knew it..."