Jonathan Safran Foer citations

Page 8

“We are being very nomadic with the truth, yes?”

“Everyone performs bad actions… A bad person is someone who does not lament his bad actions.”

“Isn't it so weird how the number of dead people is increasing even though the Earth stays the same size, so that one day there isn't going to be room to bury anyone anymore?”

“And also, there are so many times when you need to make a quick escape, but humans don't have their own wings, or not yet, anyway, so what about a birdseed shirt?”

“That is what death is like. It doesn't matter what uniforms the soldiers are wearing. It doesn't matter how good the weapons are. I thought if everyone could see what I saw, we would never have war anymore.”

“It would be possible, in theory, for life and art to be reversed.”

“She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances.”

“Love… is the immovability of truth.”

“Chickens can do many things, but they cannot make sophisticated deals with humans.”

“Your dad didn't die, so I won't be able to explain it to you.”

“Writing's funny, it's like walking down a hall in the dark looking for the light switch, and suddenly you find it, flip it on, and then you discover the hallway you passed through is papered with the novel you've written.”

“Good people don’t make fewer mistakes, they’re just better at apologizing.”

“the desire to wring out a few more drips of happiness almost always destroyed the happiness you were so lucky to have, and so foolish never to acknowledge.”

“Yesterday I wanted to turn inside out.”

“I regret how much I believed in the future.”

“The sky slowly pulled up its blue dress to reveal night.”

“I tried to think about other things. I tried to invent optimistic inventions. But the pessimistic ones were extremely loud.”

“In the morning, when the nothing vase casts a something shadow, like the memory of someone you've lost, what can you say about that?”

“I'm so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything,' maybe that would have made the impossible possible. Maybe, but I couldn't do it, I had buried too much too deeply inside me. And here I am, instead of there.”

“If we communicated with something like music, we would never be misunderstood, because there is nothing in music to understand.”

“Tomorrow was over the horizon, and would take an entire day to reach.”

“I’m not smarter than you, I’m more knowledgeable than you, and that’s only because I’m older than you. Parents are always more knowledgeable than their children, and children are always smarter than their parents.”

“Only humans can cry tears.”

“… an infinitely blank book and the rest of time.”

“Our stories are so fundamental to us that it’s easy to forget that we choose them.”

“In the end, everyone loses everyone.”

“Then I have some bad news for you, because humans are going to destroy each other as soon as it becomes easy enough to, which will be very soon.”

“She avoids mirrors, and lifts a powerful telescope to find herself.”

“I don't mind if smiles come at my expense, I'm a small price to pay.”