Quotes from book

High Fidelity

“It's a mystery of human chemistry and I don't understand it, some people, as far as their senses are concerned, just feel like home.”

“You have to work at relationships. You can’t just walk out on them every time something goes wrong.”

“I'm simply pointing out that what happens to us isn't the whole story. That I continue to exist even when we're not together.”

“One day, maybe not in the next few weeks, but certainly in the conceivable future, someone will be able to refer to me without using the word 'arse' somewhere in the sentence.”

“She thought I was… soulful, by which I think she means that I don't say much and I always look vaguely pissed off.”

“It's just that none of us had the wit or talent to make them into songs. We made them into life, which much messier, and more time consuming, and leaves nothing for anybody to whistle.”

“I don't even feel as if I'm the center of my own world, so how am I supposed to feel as though I'm the center of anyone else's?”

“I guess I should have forgotten about it ages ago, but forgetting isn't something I'm very good at.”

“… I feel as though I made a face and the wind changed, and now I have to go through life grimacing in this horrible way.”

“What really matters is what you like, not what you are like”

“Barry, you're over thirty years old. You owe it to your mum and dad not to sing in a group called Sonic Death Monkey.”

“I had to nurture those doubts as if they were tiny, sickly kittens, until eventually they became sturdy, healthy grievances, with their own cat doors, which allowed them to wander in and out of our conversation at will.”

“If you really wanted to mess me up, you should have got to me earlier.”

“Women who disapprove of men - and there's plenty to disapprove of - should remember how we started out, and how far we had to travel.”

“…I've had a bad week."
What's happened?"
Nothing's happened. I've had a bad week in my head, is all.”

“my friends don't seem to be friends at all but people whose phone numbers I haven't lost.”

“What went wrong? Nothing and everything.”

“See, records have helped me to fall in love, no question. I hear something new, with a chord change that melts my guts, and before I know it I’m looking for someone, and before I know it I’ve
found her.”

“What came first – the music or the misery? Did I listen to the music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to the music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?”