10 beautiful quotes from 'A Tale for the Time Being' that will actually change your life

1. Crying is okay:

“Sometimes when she told stories about the past her eyes would get teary from all the memories she had, but they weren't tears. She wasn't crying. They were just the memories, leaking out.”

2. You are not crazy:

“Am I crazy?" she asked. "I feel like I am sometimes."

"Maybe," he said, rubbing her forehead. "But don't worry about it. You need to be a little bit crazy. Crazy is the price you pay for having an imagination. It's your superpower. Tapping into the dream. It's a good thing not a bad thing.”

3. Life is short:

“Life is fleeting. Don't waste a single moment of your precious life. Wake up now! And now! And now!”

4. Writing is sometimes difficult:

“That's what it feels like when I write, like I have this beautiful world in my head, but when I try to remember it in order to write it down, I change it, and I can't ever get it back.”

5. Take care of your parents:

“Do all kids have to worry about their parents’ mental health? The way society is set up, parents are supposed to be the grown-up ones and look after the kids, but a lot of times it’s the other way around.”

6. Don't be bothered about people's opinion of you:

“It made me sad when I caught myself pretending that everybody out there in cyberspace cared about what I thought, when really nobody gives a shit. And when I multiplied that sad feeling by all the millions of people in their lonely little rooms, furiously writing and posting to their lonely little pages that nobody has time to read because they’re all so busy writing and posting, it kind of broke my heart."

7. Be quiet, be unknown:

“True freedom comes from being unknown.”

8. Memories fade sometimes:

“but memories are time beings, too, like cherry blossoms or ginkgo leaves; for a while they are beautiful, and then they fade and die.”

9. Life is weird:

“The past is weird. I mean, does it really exist ? It feels like it exists, but where is it ? And if it did exists, but doesn’t now, then where did it go ?”

10. Live and be happy

“Live. For Now. For the time being.”

ALSO READ: A Review of Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being