Quotes About Life from The Midnight Train by Matt Haig
Here are the best quotes from The Midnight Train by Matt Haig.
Published in mid-2026, The Midnight Train is the latest book by Matt Haig and is set to be one of the year’s biggest books.
The story features a bookseller called Wilbur Budd, who’s life has gone dramatically off track. After he dies, Budd boards The Midnight Train, which gives him the chance to reflect on his life and, if he rebels, make corrections where things went wrong.
The book is set in the same world as The Midnight Library, and follows a similar reflective tone with cameos from a few of the characters. While the first book is an exploration of life’s potential, and the different routes that are open to us depending on the choices we make, The Midnight Train is more about regret and fixing mistakes from the past.
It encourages readers to think about the choices that they’re making, to face their emotional difficulties head on, and to cherish the ones we love above everything else. While the two books are similar, they explore life from slightly different angles, and that’s reflected in the writing.
Before we move onto the quotes, here is a quick synopsis.
The Midnight Train Synopsis
‘When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop?
No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to re-live the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were.
For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice.
Before he gave it all away.
He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything…’
Quotes from The Midnight Train by Matt Haig
Here are some of the very best quotes that I picked out from The Midnight Train during my read.
Quotes About Books
If you’ve read The Midnight Library, then you’ll know that Matt Haig frequently uses books and literature as a lens for understanding life. This is the same for The Midnight Train, and here I have featured a few of the lovely book themed quotes I enjoyed during my own read through.
‘Books, she once said, are mirrors for the soul. So if you catch a glimpse of someone’s soul, you will know the mirror for them.’
This quote explores what books can tell you about someone’s life and personality. Learning about an individual’s favourite book can be a great way to understand and connect to them them on a deeper level.
‘He read because stories gave him room to grow beyond the world he was given. They helped him feel as if the lives he read about intertwined with his own, like threads in an ever-expanding rope. Stories made him strong.’
Lots of readers will identify with the way that reading fictional stories can help them to better understand their own lives. This is something that Wilbur learns early on in the book.
‘Books are there to be read. And a good rule for a bookshop is to let people fall in love with books.’
A great reminder that books are not there to remain unread on a shelf, and that the best bookshops are the ones that give you time to browse, relax, and flick through the titles they have in stock.
‘A book can contain infinite emotion but when you have finished you close it and put it back on the shelf.’
Although reading can be a fulfilling and enjoyable pastime, stories are not places that we can live in forever, and at the end of a book we must return to reality.
‘That was one of her gifts. The way she could read the whole book of someone from a single page.’
This lovely quote about Wilbur’s love interest explains how well she understands people from the smallest signs.
Quotes About Education and the Class System
This is a theme that pops up quite a few times in The Midnight Train, particularly when referencing Wilbur’s English teacher, who has lots of thoughts and opinions on education and the class system.
‘She says education is a tool used to prop up the class system. She says we’re encouraged to equate the upper classes with cleverness in order for the lower classes to keep doing manual labour and not dream of anything bigger.’
This astute reflection on the education system still feels relevant today, although the playing field has levelled since Wilbur Budd attended school.
‘Miss Graham says that if I get to Oxford it’ll be an act of rebellion. She says the education system reinforces the class system. So every time someone from nothing and nowhere gets in, it subverts the system.
Although it is more common nowadays for working class students to attend Oxford university, applicants from upper class and private school backgrounds still have an advantage. Making education more accessible for people of all classes is important for achieving equality in society.
‘The scariest thing for the powers above us is an educated working class.’
I would go so far as to say that this is still the case in the modern day! You only need to look at London’s Houses of Parliament to see how few working class MPs sit on the benches.
Quotes About the Progression of Time
The Midnight Train is a book about reflecting on life, so there were many quotes that I could include in this section. Here are a few examples to reflect on.
‘As they walked Wilbur had a sense of the true nature of time. Of strands of life plaiting over each other, past, present and future, keeping everything that had ever happened as fresh and real as everything that ever will.’
A core part of the book is the idea that the past is just as real as the future, and that both states exist at the same time. This is certainly the case on the Midnight Train, where Wilbur is able to reflect on his entire life from start to finish.
‘He had lived long enough to know that time and meaning were not shared out equally. Some personal eras were relatively empty. The temporal equivalent of air. And then you would come across a day - or even a minute - and it would have a whole decade’s worth of weight. It would be everything. It would have the power to change an entire life.’
When I read this I thought about how true it was - some seasons of live certainly seem more important than others, and there are times where seemingly small decisions can change the entire direction of someone’s life.
Quotes About Life
These quotes discuss life more generally than the previous examples.
‘Maybe the revolution will be internal. Like we learn to accept ourselves.’
This personal form of revolution is something that we can all work towards individually, with the potential to change the trajectory of our lives.
‘This world is full of folk who look but never see.’
This self explanatory quote references those who see the physical things that are in front of them, but do so in a superficial way, missing crucial layers of understanding.
‘The only way to learn is to live.’
This links well to the previous quote about books needing to be put back on the shelf when they are finished. Although reading and thinking things through is important, ultimately, facing things in reality is the only way to truly live life.
‘The world was stupid to only see the amazing in extroverts and fluent talkers and tough fighters.’
I really like this quote, which takes a moment to acknowledge all of the wonderful people we have in the world who are introverted, shy, or simply more quiet than others. Those individuals are often overlooked, which is a mistake, as they have their own unique talents to offer the world.
Thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoy The Midnight Train. If you don’t yet have a copy, then make sure you buy one at the link below.