x "Sometimes he thinks of her, of them of what could have been.
Sometimes it’s all he thinks about but he doesn’t stop walking anymore.
He doesn’t stop to look around.
He keeps going.
He can feel the weight of their lives in a single step forward.
And he is enchanted by the beauty of small things: hot coffee, wind through an open window, the tapping of rain, a passing bicycle, the desolation of snow on a winter’s day."
— Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

x "The love of a man is like a drop of color into something clear."
— Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

x "Everything was already here and I am the last to be born.
Small questions fill her mind like birds circling. Skeleton trees, stripped of their flesh by frost, are changing again. Green tips harden at last year’s final moments.
She waits at the wild end of the garden, leaning on a gate in her coat—the one she wouldn’t wear. But now everything seems beautiful—especially the buttons; small tusks discolored by a thousand meals. The mystery of pockets.
At the farthest end of the wood, where no one comes, is where her life begins and ends."
— First lines to Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

x "Then he thinks about the idea of a museum: the physical record of things; the history of miracles; the miracle of nature and the miracle of hope and perseverance, arranged in such a way as to never be forgotten, or lost, or simply mistaken for everyday things with no particular significance."
— The City of Windy Trees (short story from Love Begins in Winter), by Simon Van Booy (rediscovered via the-final-sentence)

x "But those who seek only reassurance from life will never be more than tourists—seeing everything and trying to possess what can only be felt.
Beauty is the shadow of imperfection."
— Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

x "You were unsure which pain is worse — the shock of what happened or the ache for what never will."
— Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy