It took hours to turn the clock back 30 seconds. Jonathan Franzen More Quotes by Jonathan Franzen More Quotes From Jonathan Franzen It's not surprising to see in my own work, looking back, and in the work of some of my peers, an attention to family. It's nice to write a book that does tend toward significance and meaning, and where else are you sure of finding it? Jonathan Franzen nice writing book I hate that word dysfunction. Jonathan Franzen i-hate dysfunction hate I feel as if I'm clearly part of a trend among writers who take themselves seriously - and I confess to taking myself as seriously as the next writer. Jonathan Franzen trends next feels Patty knew, in her heart, that he was wrong in his impression of her. And the mistake she went to go on to make, the really big life mistake, was to go along with Walter's version of her in spite of knowing that it wasn't right. He seemed so certain of her goodness that eventually he wore her down. Jonathan Franzen knowing mistake heart But she was seventeen now and not actually dumb. She knew that you could love somebody more than anything and still not love the person all that much, if you were busy with other things. Jonathan Franzen dumb persons busy Integrity's a neutral value. Hyenas have integrity, too. They're pure hyena. Jonathan Franzen hyenas pure integrity Life, in her experience, had a kind of velvet luster. You looked at yourself from one perspective and all you saw was weirdness. Move your head a little bit, though, and everything looked reasonably normal. Jonathan Franzen perspective littles moving Being dead's only a problem if you know you're dead, which you never do because you're dead! Jonathan Franzen corrections problem ifs He became another data point in the American experiment of self-government, an experiment statistically skewed from the outset, because it wasn't the people with sociable genes who fled the crowded Old World for the new continent; it was the people who didn't get along well with others. Jonathan Franzen data government self The problem was money and the indignities of life without it. Every stroller, cell phone, Yankees cap, and SUV he saw was a torment. He wasn't covetous, he wasn't envious. But without money he was hardly a man. Jonathan Franzen phones cells men Then she waited, with parted lips and a saucy challenge in her eyes, to see how her presence -- the drama of being her -- was registering. In the way of such chicks, she seemed convinced of the originality of her provocation. Jonathan Franzen eye challenges drama She wondered: How could people respond to these images if images didn't secretly enjoy the same status as real things? Not that images were so powerful, but that the world was so weak. It could be read, certainly, in its weakness, as on days when the sun baked fallen apples in orchards and the valley smelled like cider, and cold nights when Jordan had driven Chadds Ford for dinner and the tires of her Chevrolet had crunched on the gravel driveway; but the world was fungible only as images. Nothing got inside the head without becoming pictures. Jonathan Franzen powerful real night I look at my father, who was in many ways an unhappy person, but who, not long before he got sick, said that the greatest source of satisfaction in his life had been going to work in the company of other workers. Jonathan Franzen unhappy-person long father If you're interested in how people behave, if you're interested in the way they talk about themselves, the way the conceive of themselves, it's very hard to ignore drugs nowadays, because that is so much part of the conversation. Jonathan Franzen drug people way I wrote two plotted books, got some of the fundamentals of storytelling down, then... it's sort of like taking the training wheels off, trying to write a book that's fun in the same way without relying on quite such mechanical or external beats. Jonathan Franzen writing fun book The more you pursue distractions, the less effective any particular distraction is, and so I'd had to up various dosages, until, before I knew it, I was checking my e-mail every ten minutes, and my plugs of tobacco were getting ever larger, and my two drinks a night had worsened to four, and I'd achieved such deep mastery of computer solitaire that my goal was no longer to win a game but to win two or more games in a row--a kind of meta-solitaire whose fascination consisted not in playing the cards but in surfing the streaks of wins and losses. Jonathan Franzen winning loss night I was about 13, in some ways, when I wrote the first book. Approximately 18 when I wrote the second. Jonathan Franzen book way firsts I really enjoy doing both, but I didn't write nonfiction until 1994. Jonathan Franzen nonfiction enjoy writing It'sthe fate of most Ping-Pong tables in home basements eventually to serve the ends of other, more desperate games. Jonathan Franzen fate games home The pain was quite extraordinary. And yet also weirdly welcome and restorative, bringing him news of his aliveness and his caughtness in a story larger than himself. Jonathan Franzen news pain stories
