That what appears to be egoism so often isn't. David Foster Wallace More Quotes by David Foster Wallace More Quotes From David Foster Wallace I think it's easy to stop smoking; it's just hard not to commit a felony after you stop. David Foster Wallace smokingeasythinking What TV is extremely good at - and realize that this is 'all it does' - is discerning what large numbers of people think they want, and supplying it. David Foster Wallace numberspeoplethinking Te Occidere Possunt Sed Te Edere Non Possunt Nefas Est" ("They can kill you, but the legalities of eating you are quite a bit dicier"). David Foster Wallace legalitybitseating Mario, what do you get when you cross an insomniac, an unwilling agnostic and a dyslexic?" "I give." "You get someone who stays up all night torturing himself mentally over the question of whether or not there's a dog. David Foster Wallace doggivingnight I'd tell you all you want and more, if the sounds I made could be what you hear David Foster Wallace madesoundwant Mary had a little lamb, its fleece electrostatic / And everywhere Mary went, the lights became erratic. David Foster Wallace erraticlambslight Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden. David Foster Wallace girlfeetdoe ...Genuine pathological openness is about as seductive as Tourette's Syndrome. David Foster Wallace tourettessyndromesseductive ...logical validity is not a guarantee of truth. David Foster Wallace infinite-jestlogicalguarantees An ad that pretends to be art is - at absolute best - like somebody who smiles warmly at you only because he wants something from you. This is dishonest, but what's sinister is the cumulative effect that such dishonesty has on us: since it offers a perfect facsimile or simulacrum of goodwill without goodwill's real spirit, it messes with our heads and eventually starts upping our defenses even in cases of genuine smiles and real art and true goodwill. It makes us feel confused and lonely and impotent and angry and scared. It causes despair. David Foster Wallace confusedlonelyart Almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it. David Foster Wallace engineersimportanthappens We all suffer alone in the real world. True empathy's impossible. But if a piece of fiction can alow us imaginatively to identify with a character's pain, we might then also more easily conceive of others identifying with their own. This is nourishing, redemptive; we become less alone inside. It might just be that simple. David Foster Wallace painrealcharacter Every love story is a ghost story. David Foster Wallace ghost-storiesjestlove-story I never, even for a moment, doubted what they’d told me. This is why it is that adults and even parents can, unwittingly, be cruel: they cannot imagine doubt’s complete absence. They have forgotten. David Foster Wallace adultsparentdoubt ...the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. David Foster Wallace obviousimportantreality There are very few innocent sentences in writing. David Foster Wallace innocentsentenceswriting When they were introduced, he made a witticism, hoping to be liked. She laughed extremely hard, hoping to be liked. Then each drove home alone, staring straight ahead, with the very same twist to their faces. The man who'd introduced them didn't much like either of them, though he acted as if he did, anxious as he was to preserve good relations at all times. One never knew, after all, now did one now did one now did one. David Foster Wallace twistshomemen There's a grosser irony about Politically Correct English. This is that PCE purports to be the dialect of progressive reform but is in fact - in its Orwellian substitution of the euphemisms of social equality for social equality itself - of vastly more help to conservatives and the US status quo than traditional SNOOT prescriptions ever were. David Foster Wallace dialectreformfacts It takes great personal courage to let yourself appear weak. David Foster Wallace personal-courageinfinite-jestweak But if you've really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options. It will be within your power to experience a crowded, loud, slow, consumer-hell-type situation as not only meaningful but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars - compassion, love, the sub-surface unity of all things. David Foster Wallace starscompassionmeaningful
