Quotes by Hanya Yanagihara

. . .the particular way he had of structuring his paragraphs, beginning and ending each with a joke that wasnt really a joke, but an insult cloaked in a silken cape.

In those hours he is awake and prowling through the building, he sometimes feels he is a demon who has disguised himself as a human, and only at night is it safe to shed the costume he must wear by daylight, and indulge his true nature.

He placed his hand on Willems arm. Willem, dont cry.Im not going to, he said. I can do other things in life besides cry, you know, although he was no longer sure that was even true.

he tried to prepare himself for disappointment, even as he yearned to be proven wrong

People who dont like math always accuse mathematicians of trying to make math complicated. (...) But anyone who does love math knows its really the opposite: math rewards simplicity, and mathematicians value it above all else. So its no surprise that Walters favourite axiom was also the most simple in the realm of mathematics: the axiom of the empty set. The axiom of the empty set is the axiom of zero. it states that there must be a concept of nothingness, that there must be the concept of zero: zero value, zero items. Math assumes theres a concept of nothingness, but is it proven? No. But it must exist.And if were being philosophical—which we today are—we can say that life itself is the axiom of the empty set. It begins in zero and ends in zero. We know that both states exist, but we will not be conscious of either experience: they are states that are necessary parts of life, even as they cannot be experienced as life. We assume the concept of nothingness, but we cannot prove it. But it must exist. So I prefer to think that Walter has not died but has instead proven for himself the axiom of the empty set, that he has proven the concept of zero. I know nothing else would have made him happier. An elegant mind wants elegant endings, and Walter had the most elegant mind. So I wish him goodbye; I wish him the answer to the axiom he so loved.

Life itself is the axiom of the empty set. It begins in zero and ends in zero.

He sits at the table and reads novels, old favorites of his, the words and plots and characters comforting and lived-in and unchanged.

He joined Jude in the kitchen and began making a salad, and JB slumped to the dining-room table and started flipping through a novel Jude had left there. I read this, he called over to him. Do you want to know what happens in the end? No, JB, said Jude. Im only halfway through.The minister character dies after all.JB!After that, JBs mood seemed to improve.

No religion makes more use of color than Hinduism, with its blue-skinned gods and peony-lipped goddesses, and even the spring festival of Holi is focused on color: Boys squirt arcs of dyed water on passersby or dump powder, all violently hued, on their marks.

Every traveler knows too well the endless quest for the perfect travel bag: the one thats stylish enough to carry through Paris, sturdy enough to tote around Peru, and - most important - doesnt make your shoulder sag even before youve loaded it up with everything you need for a day of sightseeing.

I have never wanted a family. I dont believe in marriage, though I obviously believe it should be legal for everyone who wants to do it. But it is not something I believe in, nor do the characters in my book, nor do any of my friends.

Kashmir, the 86,000-square-mile region in Indias north, both is and isnt the India of the popular imagination.

I think for a lot of people, friendship is a relationship that gets devalued once they move on to what people consider to be more important relationships: once you find a partner or when you have kids.

In a basic sense, A Little Life is a homage to how my friends and I live our lives. I wanted to push past the definitions of how we typically define friendship. Its a different version of adulthood, but its no less important and no less legitimate than anyone elses.

Friendship is one of our most treasured relationships, but it isnt codified and celebrated; its never going to give you a party.

The first thing many tourists see in Hawaii is concrete - a long dreary stretch of it through landscapes dominated by sad, cheap apartment buildings and almost entirely denuded of plant life.

“Relationships never provide you with everything. They provide you with some things. You take all the things you want from a person -- sexual chemistry, lets say, or good conversation, or financial support, or intellectual compatibility, or niceness, or loyalty -- and you get to pick three of those things. The rest you have to look for elsewhere. Its only in the movies that you find someone who gives you all those things. But this isnt the movies. In the real world, you have to identify which three qualities you want to spend the rest of your life with, and then you look for those qualities in another person. Thats real life. Dont you see its a trap? If you keep trying to find everything, youll wind up with nothing.”

“He experienced the singular pleasure of watching people he loved fall in love with other people he loved.”