Beartown (Beartown, #1) QUOTES

61 " Words are small things. No one means any harm by them, they keep saying that. Everyone is just doing their job. The police say it all the time. 'I'm just doing my job here.' That's why no one asks what the boy did; as soon as the girl starts to talk they interrupt her instead with questions about what she did. Did she go up the stairs ahead of him or behind him? Did she lie down on the bed voluntarily or was she forced? Did she unbutton her own blouse? Did she kiss him? No? Did she kiss him back, then? Had she been drinking alcohol? Had she smoked marijuana? Did she say no? Was she clear about that? Did she scream loudly enough? Did she struggle hard enough? Why didn't she take photographs of her bruises right away? Why did she run from the party instead of saying anything to the other guests? They have to gather all the information, they say, when they ask the same question ten times in different ways in order to see if she changes her answer. This is a serious allegation, they remind her, as if it's the allegation that's the problem. She is told all the things she shouldn't have done: She shouldn't have waited so long before going to the police. She shouldn't have gotten rid of the clothes she was wearing. Shouldn't have showered. Shouldn't have drunk alcohol. Shouldn't have put herself in that situation. Shouldn't have gone into the room, up the stairs, given him the impression. If only she hadn't existed, then none of this would have happened, why didn't she think of that? She's fifteen, above the age of consent, and he's seventeen, but he's still 'the boy' in every conversation. She's 'the young woman.' Words are not small things. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

62 " And when enough people are quiet for long enough, a handful of voices can give the impression that everyone is screaming. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

63 " You never stop being scared of falling from the top, because when you close your eyes you can still feel the pain from each and every step of the way up. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

64 " Not a second has passed since she had children without her feeling like a bad mother. For everything. For not understanding, for being impatient, for not knowing everything, not making better packed lunches, for still wanting more out of life than just being a mother. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

65 " Time always moves at the same rate, only feelings have different speeds. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

66 " Ana feels like pushing her neighbour up against the wall and telling him that the locker room where those boys sit telling their stupid jokes end up preserving them like a tin can. It makes them mature more slowly, while some even go rotten inside. And they don’t have any female friends, and there are no women’s teams here, so they learn that hockey only belongs to them, and their coaches teach them that girls only exist for fucking. She wants to point out how all the old men in this town praise them for “fighting” and “not backing down,” but not one single person tells them that when a girl says no, it means NO. And the problem with this town is not only that a boy raped a girl, but that everyone is pretending that he DIDN’T do it. So now all the other boys will think that what he did was okay. Because no one cares. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

67 " Is that why you’re here? To talk about that? Sweet Jesus . . . you men. It’s never your fault, is it? When are you going to admit that it isn’t ‘hockey’ that raises these boys, it’s YOU LOT? In every time and every place, I’ve come across men who blame their own stupidity on crap they themselves have invented. ‘Religion causes wars,’ ‘guns kill people,’ it’s all the same old bullshit!” “I didn’t mea . . . ,” Sune tries, but has to duck when she tries to slap him again. “Keep your trap shut when I’m talking! Fucking men! YOU’RE the problem! Religion doesn’t fight, guns don’t kill, and you need to be very fucking clear that hockey has never raped anyone! But do you know who do? Fight and kill and rape?” Sune clears his throat. “Men?” “MEN! It’s always fucking men! "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

68 " Some of you were born with talent, some weren't. Some of you are lucky and got everything for free, some of you got nothing. But remember, when you're out on the ice you're all equals. And there's one thing you need to know: desire always beats luck. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

69 " It’s just as easy to be exclusive as it is to be inclusive, just as easy to create an Us as a Them. Benji has never been worried about being beaten up or hated if anyone finds out the truth about him; he’s been hated by every opposing team since he was a child. The only thing he’s scared of is that one day there will be jokes that his teammates and coach won’t tell when he’s in the room. The exclusivity of laughter. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

70 " Big secrets turn us into small men.” Benji "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

71 " We love winners, even though they’re very rarely particularly likeable people. They’re almost always obsessive and selfish and inconsiderate. That doesn’t matter. We forgive them. We like them while they’re winning. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

72 " Ignore everything else, just concentrate on the things you can change. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

73 " A great deal is expected of anyone who's been given a lot. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

74 " That most people don’t do what we tell them to. They do what we let them get away with. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

75 " One of all the terrible effects of grief is that we interpret its absence as egotism. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

76 " People sometimes say that sorrow is mental but longing is physical. One is a wound, the other an amputated limb, a withered petal compared to a snapped stem. Anything that grows closely enough to what it loves will eventually share the same roots. We can talk about loss, we can treat it and give it time, but biology still forces us to live according to certain rules: plants that are split down the middle don’t heal, they die. She "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

77 " If you are honest, people may deceive you. Be honest anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfishness. Be kind anyway.
All the good you do today will be forgotten by others tomorrow. Do good anyway.
What you create, others can destroy. Create anyway. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

78 " If you spend your whole life being someone else, who will be you? "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

79 " Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes much easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn’t through love, because love is hard. It makes demands. Hate is simple. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)

80 " He will never be able to explain how he dares to do this, but perhaps you get tired of being frightened if you've been frightened long enough. "

― Fredrik Backman , Beartown (Beartown, #1)