What you don’t see

You see that couple sitting on the next table — They look fine — They could just be saying, ‘Yeah, my brother’s buying a new shop,’ or she could be saying, ‘You know what? I can’t do this any more. I’m leaving in three days and I’m not coming back.’ And the other person might have been planning his whole life on that person staying, so he has a broken heart inside. But you can’t see it.

— Erlend Øye, quoted in Norwegian Blues, 2004.