To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that’s all. —Oscar Wilde (Location 353)
Death is inevitable for everyone and it’s absolute for me today. (Location 415)
I guess what I’ll miss most are the wasted opportunities to live my life and the lost potential to make great friends with everyone I sat next to for four years. I’ll miss how we never got to bond over sleepovers where everyone stayed up and played Xbox Infinity and board games all night, all because I was too scared. (Location 422)
Because I refused to live invincibly on all the days I didn’t get an alert, I wasted all those yesterdays and am completely out of tomorrows. (Location 436)
It has been both my sanctuary and my prison and for once I need to go breathe in the outside air instead of tearing through it to get from Point A to Point B. I have to count trees, maybe sing a favorite song while dipping my feet in the Hudson, and just do my best to be remembered as the young man who died too early. (Location 470)
“I read our love wrong, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. You were there for me when I needed to act out and be angry, and you made me happy when I was tired of hating everything. (Location 924)
My pops once said goodbyes are “the most possible impossible” ’cause you never wanna say them, but you’d be stupid not to when given the shot. (Location 981)
None of that would’ve happened if Death-Cast called one day sooner. (Location 1030)
No final hug with my family, no final hug with the Plutos. It’s not even the goodbyes, man, it’s not getting to thank everyone for all they did for me. (Location 1037)
It’s about time. I’ve made mistakes, but I’m gonna go out right. (Location 1074)
I’ll chat with him and, if I get a good vibe, he might be the kind of guy whose honesty will make me face myself. (Location 1078)
I almost reject the call, too confused about the suddenness of this moment, but I answer before the call goes away, before Rufus goes away. (Location 1105)
“Believe me, I know it can get ugly out here. There was a point where I didn’t think any of this was worthwhile.” (Location 1125)
It’s mad twisted, but surviving showed me it’s better to be alive wishing I was dead than dying wishing I could live forever. (Location 1129)
But no matter what choices we make—solo or together—our finish line remains the same. It doesn’t matter how many times we look both ways. It doesn’t matter if we don’t go skydiving to play it safe, even though it means we’ll never get to fly like my favorite superheroes do. It doesn’t matter if we keep our heads low when passing a gang in a bad neighborhood. No matter how we choose to live, we both die at the end. (Location 1149)
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. —John A. Shedd (Location 1155)
Andrea reminds herself every night how lucky these Deckers are to have her at their service. She doesn’t just tell people they’re dying. She gives them a chance to really live. But she can’t live for them. That’s on them. (Location 1170)
I think once the awkwardness is out of the way he’ll make for a solid partner-in-crime. If not, we can always part ways. It’ll suck ’cause that’s a waste of time we don’t have, but it is what it is. (Location 1177)
Malcolm can’t give his friend an extra day, but he can find him extra time to live. (Location 1193)
Malcolm stares out the window, wishing he could glimpse Rufus on his bike turning a corner, and finally he cries, these loud, stuttering sobs, not because he’ll now have a criminal record, not because he’s scared to go to the police station, not even because Rufus is dying, but because the biggest crime of all tonight was not being able to hug his best friend goodbye. (Location 1199)
“We can play this game all day, or we can stay out here and maybe, like, live. Don’t do your last day wrong.” (Location 1260)
“I don’t need an apology. If you’re fine with your decision, that’s on you.” (Location 1434)
You shouldn’t donate to charity, help the elderly cross the street, or rescue puppies in the hopes you’ll be repaid later. I may not be able to cure cancer or end world hunger, but small kindnesses go a long way. (Location 1588)
“I think we made his day by not pretending he’s invisible. (Location 1591)
Dad taught me it’s okay to give in to your emotions, but you should fight your way out of the bad ones, too. (Location 1642)
But I do appreciate Rae’s heart, and I wonder if Andrea at Death-Cast was once like her before the job killed her compassion. (Location 1679)
“Don’t waste your breath on questions like that. Just come out and say whatever you want,” (Location 1681)
Don’t be a monster. You have a chance to say goodbye, you should do it.” (Location 1685)
How do you convince her to let you leave so you have a chance of living before you die? (Location 1688)
But look, we gotta stop caring about how others will react to our deaths and stop second-guessing ourselves.” (Location 1690)
“Was it better?” Rufus asks. “Maybe. Yes. No. The answer doesn’t matter or change anything. Just let it go, Mateo.” (Location 1694)
I’m holding myself back. I’ve spent years living safely to secure a longer life, and look where that’s gotten me. (Location 1695)
I’m at the finish line, but I never ran the race. (Location 1696)
Leaving means living before you die. Let’s bounce.” (Location 1728)
walking toward death with every minute we lose, walking against a world that’s against us. (Location 1730)
It’s like pushing a bird out of its nest—maybe even shoving because it should’ve flown out years ago. (Location 1746)
“We should get walking then. I don’t know how much life we have left but I don’t want to miss it.” (Location 1752)
There was no consoling Lidia. She obsessively read Christian’s final, frantic texts and hated herself for not waking up to any calls. (Location 1771)
Yes, we live, or we’re given the chance to, at least, but sometimes living is hard and complicated because of fear. (Location 1839)
Here’s my vision of Utopia: a world without violence and tragedies, where everyone lives forever, or until they’ve led fulfilling and happy lives and decide themselves that they want to check out whatever’s next for us. (Location 1841)
You’re Penny’s shot at happiness in a world that makes cheap promises and has no guarantees and doesn’t always reward those who never did wrong. (Location 1854)
“But I know that frustration you’re feeling, dude. You have options, thankfully. If you wanna go back to your dad or best friend, I’m not stopping you. If you wanna ditch me, I’m not chasing you. It’s your last day, live it however the hell you want. If you want help living it, I got you.” (Location 1892)
“I want to keep moving forward,” Mateo says. (Location 1898)
I don’t pose. I just sit here with my back against the wall, in the spot where I convinced my Last Friend to keep adventuring and where he gave me the idea to add some life to my profile. (Location 1932)
I upload the picture, unfiltered. I consider captioning it with ＃EndDay, but I don’t need fake sympathetic “oh no, R.I.P!!!!” comments or trolls telling me to “Rest in Pieces!!!!” The people who matter the most to me know. (Location 1938)
He’s not monstrous. Monsters don’t come to your home to help you live; they trap you in your bed and eat you alive. “People make mistakes,” I say. (Location 2065)
parents had never hugged me like they did on their End Day. I’m really proud I spoke up to get that moment out of them. (Location 2101)
“And I really am sorry. Not because we wasted money, but because we wasted time.” (Location 2210)
“I only care about the people who wanna be in my life. Like Rufus. Remember how he was nervous about coming out to us because he didn’t wanna stop sharing a room with us since we had so much fun? That’s someone who wants to be in my life. And I wanna be there for his. However much of it is left.” (Location 2309)
I wish I was brave enough to have traveled. Now that I don’t have time to go anywhere, I want to go everywhere: (Location 2380)
Everywhere. I should’ve done more than watch documentaries and video blogs about these places. (Location 2385)
My Last Friend is here for the long run. (Location 2398)
These moments of forgetting and relief are enough to push me through the rest of my day. (Location 2544)
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. —Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (Location 2564)
When Death-Cast calls, that’s it. Game over. There isn’t anything you could’ve done and there isn’t anything they could’ve done differently.” (Location 2607)
“That love is a superpower we all have, but it’s not always a superpower I’d be able to control. Especially as I get older. Sometimes it’ll go crazy and I shouldn’t be scared if my power hits someone I’m not expecting it to.” (Location 2685)
We’re supposed to be living, period. We know how this ends for both of us, but I don’t wanna look back on any moment thinking we straight wasted it. This isn’t some dream and we won’t wake up from this.” (Location 2723)
Deirdre works at Make-A-Moment, where she’s charging Deckers for thrills and fake experiences, fake memories. She doesn’t understand why these Deckers aren’t home with loved ones, particularly those two teen boys today, who, as they were leaving, talked about how underwhelming the virtual reality experience was. It’s wasted time. (Location 2744)
The train stops and the doors open. There has to be more to life than imagining a future for yourself. I can’t just wish for the future; I have to take risks to create it. (Location 2936)
Life isn’t meant to be lived alone. Neither are End Days. (Location 2979)
A new memory to laugh over is just as good as reflecting on an old one, I think. (Location 3009)
And I would only go to sleep after I lived bravely, as the kind of person someone would want to wrap their arm around, who would maybe even nuzzle against my chin or shoulder, and go on and on about how happy we were to be alive with each other without question. (Location 3043)
You don’t need matching DNA for someone to be your brother, (Location 3186)
you definitely don’t need the same blood to lose a part of yourself when someone dies. (Location 3186)
If you’re close enough to a Decker when they die, you won’t be able to put words to anything for the longest time. But few regret spending every possible minute with them while they were still alive. (Location 3200)
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. —Steve Jobs (Location 3235)
“No pressure,” I say. There’s a difference between jumping off a cliff and having fun. Once you jump off a cliff, there’s no undoing it, there’s no stopping midair. But having the kind of fun that seems daring and embarrassing in front of strangers requires a special bravery. (Location 3251)
No matter when it happens, we all have our endings. No one goes on, but what we leave behind keeps us alive for someone else. (Location 3257)
I wasted time and missed fun because I cared about the wrong things. (Location 3267)
The best thing about dying is your friendship.” (Location 3323)
“I would’ve only done what meant a lot to me. (Location 3366)
But I should’ve used those fortunes to spend time with the people who mean a lot to me. (Location 3367)
But affection from millions and intimacy from that one special person are completely different beasts. (Location 3372)
I wanna be remembered as who I am right now, not for that dumbass mistake I made. (Location 3410)
If I weren’t standing here with Rufus and our favorite people, I would be depressed. But instead we’re all dancing, something else I never thought I would get to do—not just dancing, but dancing with someone who challenges me to live. (Location 3423)
“My Last Message would be to find your people. And to treat each day like a lifetime.” (Location 3513)
I have no regrets. I go back in time and imagine myself being a little slower, maybe tripping, and losing valuable time and losing my valuable friend as bullets rip apart his beautiful heart. (Location 3522)
There’s a huge difference between living fearlessly, like I’ve finally been doing, and knowing you have something to fear while you’re out living. (Location 3530)
Entire lives aren’t lessons, but there are lessons in lives. (Location 3544)
You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. Some you’ll discover you should put behind you. Others are worth every risk. (Location 3545)
“People have their time stamps on how long you should know someone before earning the right to say it, but I wouldn’t lie to you no matter how little time we have. People waste time and wait for the right moment and we don’t have that luxury. If we had our entire lives ahead of us I bet you’d get tired of me telling you how much I love you because I’m positive that’s the path we were heading on. But because we’re about to die, I want to say it as many times as I want—I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.” (Location 3631)
Maybe it’s better to have gotten it right and been happy for one day instead of living a lifetime of wrongs.” (Location 3654)
“When you’re on your deathbed, will you regret not doing this?” (Location 3927)
When I’m on my deathbed, I want to be at peace with how I lived. (Location 3928)
We all die at the end. Every single one of us. But once again, how we die, or the fact that we die isn’t the point at all. I can’t spoil the answer for this next question, but I hope it’s one we keep on our minds daily: How did we live? (Location 3931)
