If you've never wept and want to, have a child. David Foster Wallace More Quotes by David Foster Wallace More Quotes From David Foster Wallace The point of books is to combat loneliness. David Foster Wallace combatlonelinessbook Nothing brings you together like a common enemy. David Foster Wallace togethercommonenemy Fiction is about what it is to be a human being. David Foster Wallace human-beingshumansfiction This might be one way to start talking about differences between the early postmodern writers of the fifties and sixties and their contemporary descendants. David Foster Wallace differencesmighttalking Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. David Foster Wallace vividsupportimportant He said she went around with her feelings out in front of her with an arm around the feelings' windpipe and a Glock 9mm. to the feelings' temple like a terrorist with a hostage, daring you to shoot. David Foster Wallace templesarmsfeelings Please learn the pragmatics of expressing fear: sometimes words that seem to express really invoke. This can be tricky. David Foster Wallace trickypleasesometimes That as people age, accumulate more and more private experiences, their sense of history tightens, narrows, becomes more personal? So that to the extent that they remember events of social importance, they remember only for example 'where they were' when such-and-such occurred. Et cetera et cetera. Objective events and data become naturally more and more subjectively colored. David Foster Wallace dataagepeople 'This thing I feel, I can't name it straight out but it seems important, do you feel it too?' — this sort of direct question is not for the squeamish. For one thing, it's perilously close to 'Do you like me? Please like me,' which you know quite well that 99% of all the interhuman manipulation and bullshit gamesmanship that goes on goes on precisely because the idea of saying this sort of thing straight out is regarded as somehow obscene. David Foster Wallace bullshitnamesideas [I]f the writer does his job right, what he basically does is remind the reader of how smart the reader is. David Foster Wallace smartdoejobs It now lately sometimes seemed a black miracle to me that people could actually care deeply about a subject or pursuit, and could go on caring this way for years on end. Could dedicate their entire lives to it. It seemed admirable and at the same time pathetic. We are all dying to give our lives away to something, maybe. David Foster Wallace caringpeopleyears the psychological need to believe that others take you as seriously as you take yourself. There is nothing particularly wrong with it, as psychological needs go, but yet of course we should always remember that a deep need for anything from other people makes us easy pickings. David Foster Wallace psychological-needsbelievepeople I want to tell you,' the voice on the phone said. 'My head is filled with things to say.' ... 'I don't mind,' Hal said softly. 'I could wait forever.' 'That's what you think,' the voice said. The connection was cut. David Foster Wallace phonescuttingthinking Entertainment provides relief. Art provokes engagement. David Foster Wallace engagementreliefart But if I decide to decide there’s a different, less selfish, less lonely point to my life, won’t the reason for this decision be my desire to be less lonely, meaning to suffer less overall pain? Can the decision to be less selfish ever be anything other than a selfish decision? David Foster Wallace selfishpainlonely Do this: hate him for me after I die. I beg you. Dying request. David Foster Wallace requesthatedying She took a sort of abject pride in her mecilessness toward herself. David Foster Wallace pride Worship your body, beauty, and sexual allure and you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. David Foster Wallace worship-youbodygrieving Most of us will still take nihilism over neanderthalism. David Foster Wallace stillsnihilism I had four hundred thousand pages of continental philosophy and lit theory in my head. And by God, I was going to use it to prove to him that I was smarter than he was. David Foster Wallace fourusephilosophy
