Fiction, poetry, music...these are the places (for me) where loneliness is countenanced, stared down, transfigured, treated. David Foster Wallace More Quotes by David Foster Wallace More Quotes From David Foster Wallace Scenery is here. Wish you were beautiful. David Foster Wallace wish-youwishbeautiful What teachers and the administration in that era never seemed to see was that the mental work of what they called daydreaming often required more effort and concentration than it would have taken simply to listen in class. Laziness is not the issue. It is just not the work dictated by the administration. David Foster Wallace takenclassteacher I am not what you see and hear. David Foster Wallace Like so many other nerdy, disaffected young people of that time, I dreamed of becoming an 'artist', i.e., somebody whose adult job was original and creative instead of tedious and dronelike. David Foster Wallace artistwritingjobs My chest bumps like a dryer with shoes in it. David Foster Wallace infinite-jestshoesbumps Talent is its own expectation, Jim: you either live up to it or it waves a hankie, receding forever. David Foster Wallace talentexpectationsforever These worst mornings with cold floors and hot windows and merciless light - the soul's certainty that the day will have to be not traversed but sort of climbed, vertically, and then that going to sleep again at the end of it will be like falling, again, off something tall and sheer. David Foster Wallace soulsleepfall Does somebody have an explanation why there's human flesh on the hall window upstairs? David Foster Wallace fleshdoewindow You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship. David Foster Wallace worshipgraduationinspirational I have always tried to avoid talking to pretty girls, because pretty girls have a vicious effect on me in which every part of my brain is shut down except for the part that says unbelievably stupid things and the part that is aware that I am saying unbelievably stupid things. David Foster Wallace girlstupidtalking Dieting makes me want to murder everyone around me. David Foster Wallace dietingmurderwant One paradox of professional writing is that books written solely for money and/or acclaim will almost never be good enough to garner either. David Foster Wallace paradoxwritingbook God, what a ghastly enterprise to be in, though-and what an odd way to achieve success. I'm an exhibitionist who wants to hide, but is unsuccessful at hiding; therefore, somehow I succeed. David Foster Wallace wantwritingway Under fun's new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don't want to see or let anyone else see, and this stuff usually turns out (paradoxically) to be precisely the stuff all writers and readers share and respond to, feel. David Foster Wallace writingfunfiction You have a great deal of yourself on the line, writing- your vanity is at stake. You discover a tricky thing about fiction writing; a certain amount of vanity is necessary to be able to do it all, but any vanity above that certain amount is lethal. David Foster Wallace vanitywritingfiction No one can call themselves a writer until he or she has written at least fifty stories. David Foster Wallace storiesfiftywriting ...morning is the soul's night. David Foster Wallace soulmorningnight And he wishes, in the cold quiet of his archer's heart, that he himself could feel the intensity of their reconciliations as strongly as he feels that of their battles. David Foster Wallace archerwishheart I felt the sort of soaring, ceilingless tedium that transcends tedium and becomes worry. David Foster Wallace tediumsoarworry I have now seen sucrose beaches and water a very bright blue. I have seen an all-red leisure suit with flared lapels. I have smelled suntan lotion spread over 2,100 pounds of hot flesh. I have been addressed as "Mon" in three different nations. I have seen 500 upscale Americans dance the Electric Slide. I have seen sunsets that looked computer-enhanced. I have (very briefly) joined a conga line. David Foster Wallace sunsetbluebeach
