Quotes from Charlotte Street

“I had it all planned. Or, not planned exactly, but I'd planned to make plans. Plans were very much part of my plan.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“What a terrible thing, I thought, to let a moment go.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“The people around you are you. They share your history. They can even write it with you. And when you lose one, there's no doubt you lose some of yourself, however they're lost.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“You were always an underdog in a videogame, but always guaranteed to win if you just kept plugging away, learned the moves, knew when to Save and when to Quit.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“I love London. I love everything about it. I love its palaces and its museums and its galleries, sure. But also, I love its filth, and damp, and stink. Okay, well, I don’t mean love, exactly. But I don’t mind it. Not any more. Not now I’m used to it. You don’t mind anything once you’re used to it. Not the graffiti you find on your door the week after you painted over it, or the chicken bones and cider cans you have to move before you can sit down for your damp and muddy picnic. Not the everchanging fast food joints – AbraKebabra to Pizza the Action to Really Fried Chicken – and all on a high street that despite its three new names a week never seems to look any different. Its tawdriness can be comforting, its wilfulness inspiring. It’s the London I see every day. I mean, tourists: they see the Dorchester. They see Harrods, and they see men in bearskins and Carnaby Street. They very rarely see the Happy Shopper on the Mile End Road, or a drab Peckham disco. They head for Buckingham Palace, and see waving above it the red, white and blue, while the rest of us order dansak from the Tandoori Palace, and see Simply Red, White Lightning, and Duncan from Blue. But we should be proud of that, too. Or, at least, get used to it.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Because the one thing I hate about hope - the one thing I despise about it, that no one ever seems to admit about it- is that suddenly having hope is the easiest route to sudden hopelessness there is.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Sometimes life isn't magical, you see. Sometimes life is everyday. Its a trip to the keycutters in a rushed lunch break. It's the light, high rattle of a lightbulb's broken filament. It's your neighbour coming round to tell you you've left your car lights on.
Yes rarely its something outer. Maybe it's the glance of a girl on Charlotte street, for example. But how long before a glance runs out? How long can you keep coasting on a look?”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“It's the what if? The what then? And we know that if we go for it, if we risk it, we immediately stand to lose it. But weirdly, some part of us believes the feeling is two-way, because it must be; it's too special not to be. We believe that something's been shared, even if the evidence we have is ... what? A look that lasted a breath longer then we're used to? A second glance, when the glance could easily have been to check whether there are any cabs coming, or whether the jacket we're wearing that's caught their eyes would look good on their boyfriend, or why it is we seem to be staring at them.
I saw you. You don't use overhead handles on the train. Hoped it would jolt and you would fall to me. But no.
I smiled. These small moments, never said out loud, as formed and perfect as sweet little haikus, romance and longing carved out in the dust of a grubby city.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“This is best thing about being manly: it's so easy to fake. Smear some oil on your face, or nod and say "Aaah" near mechanics.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Because isn't to be pursued, to be thought of as special, to be needed by someone somewhere, whether we know them yet or not, all any of us actually want?”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Sometimes I look at myself and think, Is this it?, and then I think, Yes, it is. This is literally the best you will ever look. Tomorrow, you will look just a little bit worse, and this is how it will go, for ever.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“I’m not one of those guys who can hear a band and immediately cite their influences and probable heroes. There are guys like that out there. Play them the first drumbeat and they’ll start banging on about Led Zeppelin or Limp Bizkit or how everything can be traced back to the man who wrote the Birdie Song. Dev can do it with videogames. He can take one look at a game and tell you what it’s trying to be, where it got the idea, what it’s been crossed with and how well it’s done, but I just can’t. Because I’m the other sort of person. A Type 2. One that judges everything on its own merits. Not because it’s the right and just and fair thing to do, but because there’s something about me that doesn’t quite have that passion. That need for peripheral knowledge. I like a little of everything; I don’t need it all. It can make conversations with the Type 1s a little strained. A Type 1 will have all his opinions ready to go and probably alphabetised before he even gets near you. A Type 2 will then shrink behind his sandwich.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“It's funny. Dev had always said disposables were different. That what they contained was more special because you couldn't instantly see inside. You had to wait. You had to invest in the moment and then wait to see what you got. And those moments had to be the right moments. You had to be sure you wanted this moment when you pressed the button, because time was always running out, you were always one click closer to the end. That's what it felt like here. But that's what made it exciting.
I looked at the tin number at the top of the wheel.
1.
Eleven more clicks.
What would they be? Who'd be in them? What story would they tell?”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“I don't know if she has a boyfriend. You should ask her.'
'If I ask her, she'll say yes. It's better not to know. That way you're always in with a chance. Even if they're with their husbands, and you've just watched them take their vows, never ask them if they're married. Totally ruins your chances.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Why doesn't he say something to her?
But I knew why. Because there's the creeping fear that these moments don't actually exist outside your own head. No eyes meet across a crowded room, no two people thing precisely the same thing, and if only one person actually has that moment, is it even really a moment at all?
We know this, so we say nothing. We avert our eyes, or pretend to be looking for change, we hope the other person will take the initiative, because we don't want to risk losing this feeling of excitement and possibilities and lust. It's too perfect. That little second of hope is worth something, possibly for ever, as we lie on out deathbeds, surrounded by our children, and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, and we can't help but quickly give on last selfish, dying thought to what could have happened if we'd actually said hello to that girl in the Uggs selling CDs outside Nando's seventy-four years earlier.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Sest üks asi, mida ma lootuse juures kõige rohkem vihkan - mida ma selle juures põlgan, mida keegi teine ei paista selle kohta tunnistavat - on see, et äkitselt leitud lootus on kõige kiirem tee äkilise lootusetuseni.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Denn das Einzige, was ich an der Hoffnung nicht leiden kann, das Einzige, was ich daran rundwegs ablehne, auch wenn es niemand zugeben will, ist der Umstand, dass plötzlich aufkeimende Hoffnung der direkte Weg zu abrupter Hoffnungslosigkeit ist.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Listen, um ... in case you even feel like saying hello ...' I said, and I handed something else to her
My disposable camera. Twelve moments of my own.
She took it, and smiled like she understood, then looked at me once more. It was a look of recognition, something slowly dawning on her, my face meaning more to her then it had.
'I knew I knew you,' she said.
'I think I knew I knew you, too," I said.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Was herunterfallen kann, hält man mit Händen, doch was in meinem Herzen ist, damit werde ich sterben.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Die Menschen, die dich umgeben, sind ein Teil von dir. Ihr habt eine gemeinsame Geschichte. Sie können sie sogar mit dir gemeinsam schreiben. Und wenn du einen verlierst, verlierst du damit ein Stück von dir, egal wie du ihn verloren hast.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Vielleicht war es gut für mich, dass alles so kam, wie es gekommen war. Damit die Vergangenheit auch verging. Damit man nicht mehr dorthin zurückkonnte, damit man sie hinter sich lassen konnte, als machte man mit einer alten Kamera ein schlechtes Foto und kurbelte den Film dann einfach weiter.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Hoffnungen gegenüber war ich schon immer misstrauisch gewesen. Jetzt jedoch merkte ich, dass einem auch die Hoffnungslosigkeit nicht weiterhilft. Natürlich ist es schön, von etwas Gutem überrascht zu werden. Einem Anruf aus heiterem Himmel. Einem unerwarteten Gewinn. Aber wie schön ist es doch auch, etwas zu wagen und dafür zu sorgen, dass etwas Gutes wahr wird.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“I just think—'
'Don’t think. If you think, you’ll never truly get over her. Thinking just extends things.'
So I decided not to think.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Non so cosa ci sia all'interno di questa scatoletta di plastica, e non so nemmeno se lo saprò mai. E il problema sta tutto lì. Potrei saperlo; avrei potuto aprirla nel giro di un'ora, avrei potuto esaminarne il contenuto e sapere una volta per tutte se c'è una speranza...o meno.
Ma se lo faccio, e poi scopro che c'è speranza, cosa succede se c'è solo quella? Solo un briciolo di speranza? Cosa succede se scopro che era solo una bolla di sapone?
Perché se c'è una cosa che odio della speranza è che la speranza improvvisa è la strada spianata verso l'improvvisa disperazione.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“ "I saw you and I see you every day. I greet you every day. Can you read my eyes? I miss you every day. I love you every day.
What was this guy’s story? Doorman? Bus driver? Receptionist? Who’s the girl? Has she noticed him? Is he anyone to her, or just the fella behind the counter at Benji’s?
Why doesn’t he say something to her?
But I knew why. Because there’s the creeping fear that these moments don’t actually exist outside your own head. No eyes meet across a crowded room, no two people think precisely the same thing, and if only one person actually has that moment, is it even really a moment at all?
We know this, so we say nothing. We avert our eyes, or pretend to be looking for change, we hope the other person will take the initiative, because we don’t want to risk losing this feeling of excitement and possibilities and lust. It’s too perfect. That little second of hope is worth something, possibly for ever, as we lie on our deathbeds, surrounded by our children, and our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren, and we can’t help but quickly give one last selfish, dying thought to what could have happened if we’d actually said hello to that girl in the Uggs selling CDs outside Nando’s seventy-four years earlier.
It’s the what if? The what then? And we know that if we go for it, if we risk it, we immediately stand to lose it. But weirdly, some part of us believes the feeling is two-way, because it must be; it’s too special not to be. We believe that something’s been shared, even if the evidence we have is … what? A look that lasted a breath longer than we’re used to? A second glance, when the glance could easily have been to check whether there are any cabs coming, or whether the jacket we’re wearing that’s caught their eye would look good on their boyfriend, or why it is we seem to be staring at them." ”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Yeah, she must work round here. Lot of high class escorts i. this area. And traffic wardens, too. She's probably one or the other.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Vedete, una storia che finisce puoi affrontarla. Fa male, e per un po' è un dolore così lacerante che è come se i polmoni collassassero e il cuore implodesse ogni volta che ti rendi conto che se n'è andato. Ma man mano che passa il tempo, almeno per me, è quello che è rimasto, quelle briciole sul pavimento, che ti aiutano a continuare. Quelle modeste prove che ti aiutano a guarire, questa è l'idea che mi sono fatta.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Io penso che le cose cambino, è ovvio. Ma in base alla mia esperienza, penso spesso che le cose cambiano perché la gente non cambia.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

“Yeah, but if your heart isn't in it, you need to be where your heart is.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street

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