The book tells the story of Augustus "Gus" Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster, both of whom had had experience with the Big C. They became friends, fell in love, went to Amsterdam and met with the author of An Imperial Affliction, a book that ended without an ending. It's a love story and more.
The story I guess can be summed up in the last few lines of the book - "You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say, in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers.." (*avoiding spoilers*)
I used to think that I can save someone from suffering the pain that I can cause. By staying away, I thought I was giving the person a favor by not experiencing the pain in loving someone like me, but I realized I'm robbing that same person of something else - the freedom to choose the person who provides that pain, that hurt.
Quotes:
"Apparently, the world is not a wish granting factory."
"Sometimes it seems the universe wants to be noticed."
"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities."
"I cannot tell you how thankful i am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and i'm grateful."
"Funerals, I have decided, are for the living."
"Pain is like fiber. The stronger it is, the more it's worth."
"Grief does not change you, it reveals you."
"It occurred to me that the voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again."
"The marks human leaves are too often scars."
"The real heroes anyway are not the people doing things; the real heroes are the people noticing things, paying attention."
"That's the thing about pain, it demands to be felt."
"Sometimes people don'tunderstand the promise they're making when they make them.... Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway."
"To be with him was to hurt him - inevitably. And that's what I felt as he reached for me. I'd felt as though I were committing an act of violence against him, because I was."
"In freedom, most people find sin."
"It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you."
"She wishes to spare you pain, and you should let her. You may not find young Hazel's logic persuasive, but I have trod through this value of tears longer than you, and from where I'm sitting she's not the lunatic."
"No matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you can't go all the way around."
"Sometimes people don'tunderstand the promise they're making when they make them.... Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway."
"To be with him was to hurt him - inevitably. And that's what I felt as he reached for me. I'd felt as though I were committing an act of violence against him, because I was."
"In freedom, most people find sin."
"It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you."
"She wishes to spare you pain, and you should let her. You may not find young Hazel's logic persuasive, but I have trod through this value of tears longer than you, and from where I'm sitting she's not the lunatic."
"No matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you can't go all the way around."
