Jonathan Safran Foer citations

Page 4

“Whether we change our lives or do nothing, we have responded. To do nothing is to do something.”

“I have so much to say to you. I want to begin at the beginning, because that is what you deserve. I want to tell you everything, without leaving out a single detail. But where is the beginning? And what is everything?”

“It’s hard to say goodbye to the place you’ve lived. It can be as hard as saying goodbye to a person.”

“Do you have any coffee?'…'It stunts my growth, and I'm afraid of death.”

“She is deranged, but so so playful.”

“I shook my tambourine the whole time, because it helped me remember that even though I was going through different neighborhoods, I was still me.”

“Try to live so that you can always tell the truth.”

“I want an infinitely blank book and the rest of time…
… why didn't I learn to treat everything like it was the last time, my greatest regret is how much I believed in the future.”

“… there are only some many times you can utter "It does not hurt" before it begins to hurt even more than the hurt.”

“[She] always knew he was a fiction but believed in him anyway.”

“I was more alone than if I had been alone.”

“She said, 'Believe it or not, I used to be idealistic.' I asked her what 'idealistic' meant. 'It means you live by what you think is right.' 'You don't do that anymore?' 'There are questions I don't ask anymore.”

“Each day has been chained to the previous one. But the weeks have wings. Anyone who believes that a second is faster than a decade did not live my life.”

“I could not believe in a God that would challenge faith like this.”

“Not responding is a response--we are equally responsible for what we don't do. In the case of animal slaughter, to throw your hands in the air is to wrap your fingers around a knife handle.”

“It was terrible. All of the things we couldn't share. The room was filled with conversations we weren't having.”

“He knew that I love you also means I love you in a way that no one loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, and also, I love you in a way that I love no one else, and never have loved anyone else, and never will love anyone else.”

“The images of his infinite pasts and infinite futures washed over him as he waited, paralyzed, in the present.”

“Do you eat chicken because you are familiar with the scientific literature on them and have decided that their suffering doesn't matter, or do you do it because it tastes good?”

“Parents are always more knowledgeable than their children, and children are always smarter than their parents.”

“I will describe my eyes and then begin the story. My eyes are blue and resplendent. Now I will begin the story.”

“I didn't understand why I needed help, because it seemed to me that youwear heavy boots when your dad dies, and if youwearing heavy boots, you need help.”

“Literature was the only religion her father practiced, when a book fell on the floor he kissed it, when he was done with a book he tried to give it away to someone who would love it.”

“… only someone who'd never been an animal would put up a sign saying not to feed them….”

“Grandfather informs me that is not possible.”

“Since the world has changed so much, the same values don't lead to the same choices anymore.”

“Once you hear something, you can never return to the time before you heard it.”

“Because sometimes people who seem good
end up being not as good as you might have hoped.”

“What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?”