Memory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERMemory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERI 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?
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOEROne hundred years of joy can be erased in one second.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERThe philosopher Elaine Scarry has observed that “beauty always takes place in the particular.” Cruelty, on the other hand, prefers abstraction.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERIt broke my heart into more pieces than my heart was made of, why can’t people say what they mean at the time?
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERWriters now are putting total faith in designers at Apple and Amazon. It’s almost like a race-car driver having no input into how cars are designed.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERSometimes I imagined stitching all of our little touches together. How many hundreds of thousands of fingers brushing against each other does it take to make love? Why does anyone ever make love?
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERLove me, because love doesn’t exist, and I have tried everything that does.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERI felt suddenly shy. I was not used to shy. I was used to shame. Shyness is when you turn your head away from something you want. Shame is when you turn your head away from something you do not want.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERHighs and lows make you feel that things matter, but they’re nothing.” “So what’s something?” “Being reliable is something. Being good.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERShe said, “Do you have more things that you need, or more that you don’t need?” I said, “It depends on what it means to need.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOEROne day you will do things for me that you hate. That is what it means to be family.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERYou do not have to utter anything you do not want to utter,” I told her, and she said, “Then I would never utter another word again.” “You do not have to do anything that you do not want to do.” “Then I would never do anything again.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERThe French, who love their dogs, sometimes eat their horses. The Spanish, who love their horses, sometimes eat their cows. The Indians, who love their cows, sometimes eat their dogs.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERI wish my days could be washed away like the chalk lines of my days.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOERNot responding is a response – we are equally responsible for what we don’t do.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER