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Jonathan Safran Foer Quotes - Page 11

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We know it (meat eating) is indisputably the number one cause of global warming. So what does it mean exactly to be an environmentalist on a daily basis if you are not thinking about the number one cause of global

We know it (meat eating) is indisputably the number one cause of global warming. So what does it mean exactly to be an environmentalist on a daily basis if you are not thinking about the number one cause of global warming or one of the top two or three causes of all other environmental problems? Does it mean you are necessarily someone who doesn't care about the environment? Obviously not, but it might mean you have a blind spot for something big.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Mean, Thinking, Blind Spots

We are being very nomadic with the truth, yes?

Jonathan Safran Foer
Truthfulness, Nomadic
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Everything Is Illuminated”, p.179, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

...accepting the compromise of the way we have been, the way we are, and the way we will likely be...may we live together in unwavering love and good health, amen.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Together, May, Way
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Everything Is Illuminated”, p.209, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I realized that your mother couldn't see the emptiness, she couldn't see anything...All of the words I'd written to her over all of those years, had I never said anything to hear at all?

Jonathan Safran Foer
Mother, Years, Emptiness

I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is. But now I think the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Thinking, Opposites, Appreciate
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Everything Is Illuminated”, p.158, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The secret was a hole in the middle of me that every happy thing fell into.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Secret, Holes, Middle
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel”, p.71, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I asked her, "Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" She looked at her watch and said, "I'm optimistic." "Then I have some bad news for you, because humans are going to destroy each others as soon as it becomes easy enough to, which will be very soon." "Why do beautiful songs make you sad?" "Because they aren't true." "Never?" "Nothing is beautiful and true." She smiled, but in a way that wasn't just happy, and said, "You sound just like Dad.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Beautiful, Song, Dad
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel”, p.43, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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

Jonathan Safran Foer
Mind, Pay, Pun
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel”, p.268, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Was his death an essential stage in the continuation of his life?

Jonathan Safran Foer
Essentials, Stage, Continuation
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Everything Is Illuminated”, p.15, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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?

Jonathan Safran Foer
Wings, Needs, Shirts
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel”, p.2, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Yesterday I wanted to turn inside out.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Yesterday, Turns, Wanted

What kind of world would we create if three times a day we activated our compassion and reason as we sat down to eat, if we had the moral imagination and the pragmatic will to change our most fundamental act of consumption?

Jonathan Safran Foer
Compassion, Imagination, Three

And here I am, instead of there. I'm sitting in this library, thousands of miles from my life, writing another letter I know I won't be able to send, no matter how hard I try and how much I want to. How did that boy making love behind that shed become this man writing this letter at this table?

Jonathan Safran Foer
Writing, Boys, Men

As a writer, putting words on the page is how I pay attention.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Attention, Pay, Pages
"A New Way To Talk About Eating Animals". Interview with Jeff Glor, www.cbsnews.com. November 3, 2009.

Or maybe what he fears is just the opposite: that nobody is looking; that his death, like his life, is without purpose; that there is neither greater good nor evil--only people living and dying because their bodies function and then do not; that the universe is a rip.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Rip, Opposites, People

Suddenly Yankel was overcome with a fear of dying, stronger than he felt when his parents passed of natural causes, stronger than when his only brother was killed in the flour mill or when his children died, stronger even than when he was a child and it first occurred to him that he must try to understand what it could mean not to be alive -- to be not in darkness, not in unfeeling -- to be not being, not to be.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Brother, Children, Mean
Jonathan Safran Foer (2003). “Everything is Illuminated”, p.50, Penguin UK

And the general shot my sister. I could not look at her, but I remember the sound of when she hit the ground. I hear that sound when things hit the ground still. Anything.' If I could, I would make it so nothing ever hit the ground again.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Sound, Looks, Remember

We looked at each other until it felt like everything would burst into flames

Jonathan Safran Foer
Flames, Felt
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel”, p.209, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

We were quiet on the car ride home. I turned on the radio and found a station playing "Hey Jude." It was true, I didn't want to make it bad. I wanted to take the sad song and make it better. It's just that I didn't know how.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Song, Home, Car
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel”, p.207, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

She spent an afternoon staring at their front door. Waiting for someone? Yankel asked. What color is this? He stood very close to the door, letting the end of his nose touch the peephole. He licked the wood and joked, It certainly tastes like red. Yes, it is red, isn't it? Seems so. She buried her head in her hands. But couldn't it be just a bit more red?

Jonathan Safran Foer
Doors, Hands, Color
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Everything Is Illuminated”, p.79, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Dream, Baby, Afterlife
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Everything Is Illuminated”, p.43, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Which, then, brings us closer to what we want to communicate: saying what we intend, or trying to say the opposite?

Jonathan Safran Foer
Opposites, Trying, Want
"About the Typefaces Not Used in This Edition" by Jonathan Safran Foer, www.theguardian.com. December 6, 2002.

Grandfather kicked the stop pedal, and my face gave a high-five to the front window.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Grandfather, Faces, Window
Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Everything Is Illuminated”, p.30, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Jed Perl writes precisely and ecstatically. Antoine' s Alphabet is a history and a fairy tale, a work of criticism, and a work of art.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Art, Writing, Criticism

Or perhaps a widow found him and took him in: brought him an easy chair, changed his sweater every morning, shaved his face until the hair stopped growing, took him faithfully to bed with her every night, whispered sweet nothings into what was left of his ear, laughed with him over black coffee, cried with him over yellowing pictures, talked greenly about having kids of her own, began to miss him before she became sick, left him everything in her will, thought of only him as she died, always knew he was fiction but believed in him anyway.

Jonathan Safran Foer
Sweet, Morning, Coffee

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