Ideally, each piece of art's its own unique object, and its evaluation's always present-tense. David Foster Wallace More Quotes by David Foster Wallace More Quotes From David Foster Wallace I don't think writers are any smarter than other people. I think they may be more compelling in their stupidity, or in their confusion. David Foster Wallace confusion people thinking Am I a good person? Deep down, do I even really want to be a good person, or do I only want to seem like a good person so that people (including myself) will approve of me? Is there a difference? How do I ever actually know whether I'm bullshitting myself, morally speaking? David Foster Wallace differences life people We're all lonely for something we don't know we're lonely for. How else to explain the curious feeling that goes around feeling like missing somebody we've never even met? David Foster Wallace being-alone lonely loneliness It's weird to feel like you miss someone you're not even sure you know. David Foster Wallace infinite-jest missing-someone like-you I had kind of a midlife crisis at twenty which probably doesn’t augur well for my longevity David Foster Wallace midlife twenties kind Look, man, we'd probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? David Foster Wallace stupid dark men Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket's checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have much harder, more tedious or painful lives than I do, overall. David Foster Wallace frustrated bored people What passes for hip cynical transcendence of sentiment is really some kind of fear of being really human, since to be really human [...] is probably to be unavoidably sentimental and naïve and goo-prone and generally pathetic. David Foster Wallace sentimental cynical hips I'm not afraid of new things. I'm just afraid of feeling alone even when there's somebody else there. I'm afraid of feeling bad. Maybe that's selfish, but it's the way I feel. David Foster Wallace feeling-alone selfish feelings The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing comes in. Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don't make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I'm going to be pissed and miserable every time I have to food-shop, because my natural default-setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me, about my hungriness and my fatigue and my desire to just get home. David Foster Wallace home giving thinking ....basically the sort of guy who looks entirely at home in sockless white loafers and a mint-green knit shirt from Lacoste. David Foster Wallace guy white home Truly decent, innocent people can be taxing to be around. David Foster Wallace decent innocent people Good literature makes your head throb heartlike David Foster Wallace good-literature literature The job of the first eight pages is not to have the reader want to throw the book at the wall, during the first eight pages. David Foster Wallace wall jobs book The first time I lay actual eyes on the real David Lynch on the set of his movie, he's peeing on a tree...Mr. David Lynch, a prodigious coffee drinker, apparently pees hard and often. David Foster Wallace coffee eye real ...most Substance-addicted people are also addicted to thinking, meaning they have a compulsive and unhealthy relationship with their own thinking. David Foster Wallace substance people thinking It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase. David Foster Wallace advertising anxiety marketing If you've never wept and want to, have a child. David Foster Wallace ifs want children The point here is ... to be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. David Foster Wallace arrogant stuff littles My own terror of appearing sentimental is so strong that I’ve decided to fight against it, some; but the terror is still there. . . . Do you identify with a distaste/fear about sentimentality? Do you agree that, past a certain line, such distaste can turn everything arch and sneering and too ironic? Or do you have your own set of abstract questions to drive yourself nuts with? David Foster Wallace fighting strong past
