I usually write away from home, in coffee shops, on trains, on planes, in friends’ houses. I like places where there’s stuff going on that you can lift your eyes, see something interesting, overhear a conversation. Jonathan Safran Foer More Quotes by Jonathan Safran Foer More Quotes From Jonathan Safran Foer There are still many different ways to get stuck, existentially stuck. Feeling like, "This is worthless. I'm wasting my time, and I would be wasting the time of someone who tried to read this." It happens all the time. Jonathan Safran Foer different would-be feelings Just to be a functioning adult in the world, we develop all of these layers of protection. When we see homeless people, we don't cry, even though homeless people probably deserve our tears - you know, it's a horrible thing. Jonathan Safran Foer tears people world From the movie "Everything is Illuminated" based on a book by Jonathan Safran Foer: I have reflected many times upon our rigid search. It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us, on the inside, looking out. Like you say, inside out. Jonathan, in this way, I will always be along the side of your life. And you will always be along the side of mine. Jonathan Safran Foer light book past When I was a girl, my life was music that was always getting louder. Everything moved me. A dog following a stranger. That made me feel so much. A calendar that showed the wrong month. I could have cried over it. I did. Where the smoke from a chimney ended. How an overturned bottle rested at the edge of a table. I spent my life learning to feel less. Every day I felt less. Is that growing old? Or is it something worse? You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. Jonathan Safran Foer sadness girl dog I wanted so much to have a life. Even just once, even for a second. Jonathan Safran Foer wanted and i wouldn't say no to something sweet. Jonathan Safran Foer something-sweet sweet Since the world has changed so much, the same values don't lead to the same choices anymore. Jonathan Safran Foer changed choices world Try to live so that you can always tell the truth. Jonathan Safran Foer telling-the-truth trying I did not need to know if he could love me. I needed to know if he could need me. Jonathan Safran Foer needed knows needs However much we obfuscate or ignore it, we know that the factory farm is inhumane in the deepest sense of the word. And we know that there is something that matters in a deep way about the lives we create for the living beings most within our power. Our response to the factory farm is ultimately a test of how we respond to the powerless, to the most distant, to the voiceless--it is a test of how we act when no one is forcing us to act one way or another. Jonathan Safran Foer voiceless tests matter I wondered, for the first time in my life, if life was worth all the work it took to live. What exactly made it worth it? Jonathan Safran Foer loud made firsts I am not a bad person. I am a good person who has lived in a bad time." Alex's grandfather..Everything is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer alex good-person grandfather He Wrote, Are you OK? I told him, My eyes are crummy. He wrote, But are you OK? I told him, That's a very complicated question. He wrote, That's a very simple answer. I asked, Are you OK? He wrote, Some mornings I wake up feeling grateful. Jonathan Safran Foer grateful eye morning I asked her, "Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" She looked at her watch and said, "I'm optimistic." "Then I have some bad news for you, because humans are going to destroy each others as soon as it becomes easy enough to, which will be very soon." "Why do beautiful songs make you sad?" "Because they aren't true." "Never?" "Nothing is beautiful and true." She smiled, but in a way that wasn't just happy, and said, "You sound just like Dad. Jonathan Safran Foer dad song beautiful I wanted to hit him. I wanted to hold him. I wanted to shout myself into his ear. Jonathan Safran Foer ears wanted Something having been done just about everywhere just about always is no kind of justification for doing it now. Jonathan Safran Foer justification kind done She wanted nothing more than someone to miss, to touch, with whom to speak like a child, with whom to be a child. Jonathan Safran Foer speak missing children Things were happening around us, but nothing was happening between us. Jonathan Safran Foer happenings I believed him. I was not stupid. I was his wife. Jonathan Safran Foer not-stupid wife stupid While it is always possible to wake a person who's sleeping, no amount of noise will wake a person who is pretending to be asleep. Jonathan Safran Foer pretending noise sleep
