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Jonathan Safran Foer Quotes

Writer
...is ignorance bliss, I don't know, but it's so painful to think, and tell me, what did thinking ever do for me, to what great place did thinking ever bring me? I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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I will describe my eyes and then begin the story. My eyes are blue and resplendent. Now I will begin the story.
From Everything Is Illuminated
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I don't think that there are any limits to how excellent we could make life seem.
From Everything Is Illuminated
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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.
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Grandfather informs me that is not possible.
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You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.
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I think and think and think, I‘ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.
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The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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It's true, I am afraid of dying. I am afraid of the world moving forward without me, of my absence going unnoticed, or worse, being some natural force propelling life on. Is it selfish? Am I such a bad person for dreaming of a world that ends when I do? I don't mean the world ending with respect to me, but every set of eyes closing with mine.
From Everything is Illuminated
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Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on.
I hope you never have to think about anything as much as I think about you.
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If we were to one day encounter a form of life more powerful and intelligent than our own, and it regarded us as we regard fish, what would be our argument against being eaten?
From Eating Animals
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If there is no love in the world, we will make a new world, and we will give it walls, and we will furnish it with soft, red interiors, from the inside out, and give it a knocker that resonates like a diamond falling to a jeweller's felt so that we should never hear it. Love me, because love doesn't exist, and I have tried everything that does.
From Everything Is Illuminated
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It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us...on the inside, looking out.
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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.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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I kept thinking how they were all names of dead people, and how names are basically the only thing dead people keep.
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When I heard your organization was recording testimonies, I knew I had to come. She died in my arms, saying 'I don't want to die.' 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.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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I said, 'I need to know how he died.'
He flipped back and pointed at, 'Why?'
So I can stop inventing how he died. I'm always inventing.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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She died in my arms, saying, "I don't want to die." 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.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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Every widow wakes one morning, perhaps after years of pure and unwavering grieving, to realize she slept a good night's sleep, and will be able to eat breakfast, and doesn't hear her husband's ghost all the time, but only some of the time. Her grief is replaced with a useful sadness. Every parent who loses a child finds a way to laugh again. The timbre begins to fade. The edge dulls. The hurt lessens. Every love is carved from loss. Mine was. Yours is. Your great-great-great-grandchildren's will be. But we learn to live in that love.
From Everything is Illuminated
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I thought about all of the things that everyone ever says to each other, and how everyone is going to die, whether it's in a millisecond, or days, or months, or 76.5 years, if you were just born. Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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...is ignorance bliss, I don't know, but it's so painful to think, and tell me, what did thinking ever do for me, to what great place did thinking ever bring me? I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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I will describe my eyes and then begin the story. My eyes are blue and resplendent. Now I will begin the story.
From Everything Is Illuminated
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I don't think that there are any limits to how excellent we could make life seem.
From Everything Is Illuminated
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Grandfather informs me that is not possible.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I think and think and think, I‘ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It's true, I am afraid of dying. I am afraid of the world moving forward without me, of my absence going unnoticed, or worse, being some natural force propelling life on. Is it selfish? Am I such a bad person for dreaming of a world that ends when I do? I don't mean the world ending with respect to me, but every set of eyes closing with mine.
From Everything is Illuminated
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on.
I hope you never have to think about anything as much as I think about you.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If we were to one day encounter a form of life more powerful and intelligent than our own, and it regarded us as we regard fish, what would be our argument against being eaten?
From Eating Animals
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If there is no love in the world, we will make a new world, and we will give it walls, and we will furnish it with soft, red interiors, from the inside out, and give it a knocker that resonates like a diamond falling to a jeweller's felt so that we should never hear it. Love me, because love doesn't exist, and I have tried everything that does.
From Everything Is Illuminated
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It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us...on the inside, looking out.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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I kept thinking how they were all names of dead people, and how names are basically the only thing dead people keep.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When I heard your organization was recording testimonies, I knew I had to come. She died in my arms, saying 'I don't want to die.' 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.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I said, 'I need to know how he died.'
He flipped back and pointed at, 'Why?'
So I can stop inventing how he died. I'm always inventing.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
She died in my arms, saying, "I don't want to die." 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.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Every widow wakes one morning, perhaps after years of pure and unwavering grieving, to realize she slept a good night's sleep, and will be able to eat breakfast, and doesn't hear her husband's ghost all the time, but only some of the time. Her grief is replaced with a useful sadness. Every parent who loses a child finds a way to laugh again. The timbre begins to fade. The edge dulls. The hurt lessens. Every love is carved from loss. Mine was. Yours is. Your great-great-great-grandchildren's will be. But we learn to live in that love.
From Everything is Illuminated
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I thought about all of the things that everyone ever says to each other, and how everyone is going to die, whether it's in a millisecond, or days, or months, or 76.5 years, if you were just born. Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
...is ignorance bliss, I don't know, but it's so painful to think, and tell me, what did thinking ever do for me, to what great place did thinking ever bring me? I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I will describe my eyes and then begin the story. My eyes are blue and resplendent. Now I will begin the story.
From Everything Is Illuminated
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I don't think that there are any limits to how excellent we could make life seem.
From Everything Is Illuminated
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Grandfather informs me that is not possible.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I think and think and think, I‘ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It's true, I am afraid of dying. I am afraid of the world moving forward without me, of my absence going unnoticed, or worse, being some natural force propelling life on. Is it selfish? Am I such a bad person for dreaming of a world that ends when I do? I don't mean the world ending with respect to me, but every set of eyes closing with mine.
From Everything is Illuminated
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on.
I hope you never have to think about anything as much as I think about you.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If we were to one day encounter a form of life more powerful and intelligent than our own, and it regarded us as we regard fish, what would be our argument against being eaten?
From Eating Animals
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If there is no love in the world, we will make a new world, and we will give it walls, and we will furnish it with soft, red interiors, from the inside out, and give it a knocker that resonates like a diamond falling to a jeweller's felt so that we should never hear it. Love me, because love doesn't exist, and I have tried everything that does.
From Everything Is Illuminated
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us...on the inside, looking out.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I kept thinking how they were all names of dead people, and how names are basically the only thing dead people keep.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When I heard your organization was recording testimonies, I knew I had to come. She died in my arms, saying 'I don't want to die.' 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.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I said, 'I need to know how he died.'
He flipped back and pointed at, 'Why?'
So I can stop inventing how he died. I'm always inventing.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
She died in my arms, saying, "I don't want to die." 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.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Every widow wakes one morning, perhaps after years of pure and unwavering grieving, to realize she slept a good night's sleep, and will be able to eat breakfast, and doesn't hear her husband's ghost all the time, but only some of the time. Her grief is replaced with a useful sadness. Every parent who loses a child finds a way to laugh again. The timbre begins to fade. The edge dulls. The hurt lessens. Every love is carved from loss. Mine was. Yours is. Your great-great-great-grandchildren's will be. But we learn to live in that love.
From Everything is Illuminated
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I thought about all of the things that everyone ever says to each other, and how everyone is going to die, whether it's in a millisecond, or days, or months, or 76.5 years, if you were just born. Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped.
From Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote