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“Still, Connell went home that night and read over some notes he had been making for a new story, and he felt the old beat of pleasure in his body, like watching a perfect goal, like the rustling movement of light through leaves, a phrase of music from the window of a passing car. Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“At times he has the sensation that he and Marianne are like figure skaters, improvising their discussions so adeptly and in such perfect synchronisation that it surprises them both. She tosses herself gracefully into the air, and each time, without knowing how he's going to do it, he catches her.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“[She] wonders what it would be like to belong here, to walk down the street greeting people and smiling. To feel that life was happening here, in this place, and not somewhere else far away.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“She would have lain on the ground, and let him walk over her body if he wanted, he knew that”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“Life is exactly the same. Life is the thing you bring with you inside your own head.”
― Sally Rooney

“In a way I like the idea of something so dramatic happening to me. I would like to upset people's expectations.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“It feels intellectually unserious to concern himself with fictional people marrying one another. But there it is: literature moves him.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“In other words, she's a nice person, and Connell is beginning to understand that he actually likes nice people, that he even wants to be one”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“The whole time we were together, why didn't you tell me any of this?

I don't know. I suppose I didn't want you to think I was damaged or something. I was probably afraid you didn't want me anymore.

Finally he puts his face in his hands. His fingers feel cold and clammy on his eyelids and there are tears in his eyes. The harder he presses with his fingers, the faster the tears seep out, wet, onto his skin. Jesus, he says. His voice sounds thick and he clears his throat. Come here, he says. And she comes to him. He feels terribly ashamed and confused. They lie face-to-face and he puts his arms around her body. In her ear he says: I'm sorry, okay? She holds onto him tightly, her arms winding around him, and he kisses her forehead.
But he always thought she was damaged, he thought it anyway.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“I want to make one thing clear; although we’re having a little fun at Rag Tag’s expense you can still like him. That is allowed, you know. You can have friends who are Rag Tags, you can enjoy their company, share jokes with them and look forward to seeing them again. And if they’re of the opposite sex you can even shag them! Or the same sex, I guess, if you’re that way inclined. But they’re still Rag Tags, and they’re on a different planet.

Or rather, you’re on the Wrong Planet.”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“Rag, Tag & Bobtail always seem to manage life better and have better control over their finances, but to me they’re stuck inside the box of time-honoured and long-established attitudes and beliefs. They are dull, rigidly conventional and humdrum.”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“You see me as inferior in contrast to your idea of "normal." But what is normal, but mediocre? Is that what you want from our life?”
― Ezra Claytan Daniels, Upgrade Soul

“Miss Keaney was whistling and stamping her feet. On the pitch, Connell and Aidan embraced like reunited brothers. Connell was so beautiful. It occurred to Marianne how much she wanted to see him having sex with someone; it didn’t have to be her, it could be anybody. It would be beautiful just to watch him. She knew these were the kind of thoughts that made her different from other people in school, and weirder.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“Those who hunger for a return to normal must have at sometime in the past believe that what they had was normal.”
― Amelia Rose

“If I'm going to pretend to be normal, I might as well commit to it fully. Nothing is more suspicious than something that's just a bit off.”
― Frank J. Fleming, Superego

“How nice that must be, to blend in with unexceptional people in that banal, work-a-day banter. Like regular people.”
― Rasmenia Massoud, Tied Within

“and the intensity of the privacy between them is severe, pressing in on him with an almost physical pressure on his face and body”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“There is no such thing as 'normal.' Normal is just a setting on the dryer."
- Ariana's Grandma”
― Carol Stein. Lexi Stein's mom!

“Well, it's always easy to think of reasons not to do something.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“¿Es mucho peor la vida aquí de lo que sería en la cama, o incluso en un lugar por completo distinto? No, la vida es exactamente igual. La vida es eso que llevas contigo, dentro de la cabeza.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“She’s far happier thinking her sister is normal even if she has a lot of problems than she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine.”
― Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman

“I have never wanted to be normal, because "normal" equals boring.”
― Monroe Mann

“as if we

were actual human beings
or completely normal people”
― Laura Kasischke, Space, in Chains

“The only normal people are the ones you don't know really well.”
― Nitya Prakash

“⭐Smart people, thought Blue, stay away when you tell them you're cursed. Normal people think you've lost your marbles.”
― Cassie Beasley, Tumble & Blue

“So I can say with confidence that sometimes the only way to cope is to laugh at the absurdity of it all...the absurdity of the very concept of "normal." The absurd arrogance of those who take pride in their normalcy...and the absurdity of caring what those people think of you.”
― Ezra Claytan Daniels, Upgrade Soul

“You may soon discover that my life does not deviate greatly from any other normal person’s life despite my final destination. Maybe then, my dearest reader, leaving prejudice at the door, you will see the sanity in me…and perhaps the madness in yourself.”
― Aegelis, Psycho Author: A dark comedy...or is it?

“You don’t have to be bit by a bug or bathed in chemicals to change the world. Be that everyday, normal person with the heart of a hero and spirit of a superhero.”
― J. Aaron Gruben

“The driver hadn’t said not to [climb the tree]. Maybe it was implied, because normal people’s minds didn’t jump straight to, Oh, a tree, I should climb it.”
― Becky Dean, Picture Perfect Boyfriend

“On my first day of freedom, I decided to do something Daddy would never do—get a job. All my life, I’d wanted to live like normal people. From what I could tell, employment was the dividing line between my family and normal people.”
― Cherilyn Christen Clough, To UnEat An Elephant: A Memoir