Geoff Dyer - Happen Quotes

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This book is a ripped, by no mean reliable map of some of the landscapes that make up a particular phase of my life. It's about places where things happened or didn't happen, places where I stayed and things that have stayed with me, places I'd wanted to see or places I passed through or just ended up. In a way they're all the same place—the same landscape—because the person these things happened to was the same person who in turn is the sum of all things that happened or didn't happen in these and other places. Everything in this book really happened, but some of the things that happened only happened in my head; by that same token, all the things that didn't happen didn't happen there too.

Geoff Dyer
People say it's not what happens in your life that matters, it's what you think happened. But this qualification, obviously, did not go far enough. It was quite possible that the central event of your life could be something that didn't happen, or something you thought didn't happen. Otherwise there'd be no need for fiction, there'd only be memoirs and histories...

Geoff Dyer
The more you covet something, the more certain it is that you'll lose it, and the more devastating the loss will be when it happens—which it will.

Geoff Dyer
When you are lonely, writing can keep you company. It is a form of self-compensation, a way of making up for things—as opposed to making things up—that did not quite happen.

Geoff Dyer