Jonathan Safran Foer Quotes

“To feel alone is to be alone.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“I am sure people tell you this constantly but if you looked up 'incredibly beautiful' in the dictionary there would be a picture of you.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

“She was with me. She did all of those things and so many more, things I would never tell anyone, and she never even loved me. Now that’s love.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“The next morning I told Mom I couldn't go to school again. She asked what was wrong. I told her, “The same thing that’s always wrong.” “You’re sick?” “I'm sad.” “About Dad?” “About everything.” She sat down on the bed next to me, even though I knew she was in a hurry. “What's everything?” I started counting on my fingers: “The meat and dairy products in our refrigerator, fistfights, car accidents, Larry–” “Who's Larry?” “The homeless guy in front of the Museum of Natural History who always says ‘I promise it’s for food’ after he asks for money.” She turned around and I zipped her dress while I kept counting. “How you don’t know who Larry is, even though you probably see him all the time, how Buckminster just sleeps and eats and goes to the bathroom and has no ‘raison d’etre’, the short ugly guy with no neck who takes tickets at the IMAX theater, how the sun is going to explode one day, how every birthday I always get at least one thing I already have, poor people who get fat because they eat junk food because it’s cheaper…” That was when I ran out of fingers, but my list was just getting started, and I wanted it to be long, because I knew she wouldn't leave while I was still going. “…domesticated animals, how I have a domesticated animal, nightmares, Microsoft Windows, old people who sit around all day because no one remembers to spend time with them and they’re embarrassed to ask people to spend time with them, secrets, dial phones, how Chinese waitresses smile even when there’s nothing funny or happy, and also how Chinese people own Mexican restaurants but Mexican people never own Chinese restaurants, mirrors, tape decks, my unpopularity in school, Grandma’s coupons, storage facilities, people who don’t know what the Internet is, bad handwriting, beautiful songs, how there won’t be humans in fifty years–” “Who said there won't be humans in fifty years?” I asked her, “Are you an optimist or a pessimist?” She looked at her watch and said, “I'm optimistic.” “Then I have some bed news for you, because humans are going to destroy each other 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.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

“I kept thinking how they were all names of dead people, and how names are basically the only thing dead people keep.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer

“God loves the plagiarist. And so it is written, 'God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them." God is the original plagiarizer. With a lack of reasonable sources from which to filch - man created in the image of what? the animals? - the creation of man was an act of reflexive plagiarizing; God looted the mirror. When we plagiarize, we are likewise creating in the image and participating in the completion of Creation.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“I have been waiting for you for so long.”
I pointed to the car. “We are searching for Trachimbrod.”
“Oh,” she said and she released a river of tears. “You are here. I am it.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“Fuck You!' [Oskar said] 'Exuse me!' [His mom said] 'Sorry. I mean, screw you.' 'You need a time-out!' 'I need a mausoleum!”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

“Brod’s life was a slow realization that the world was not for her, and that for whatever reason, she would never be happy and honest at the same time. She felt as if she were brimming, always producing and hoarding more love inside her. But there was no release. Table, ivory elephant charm, rainbow, onion, hairdo, mollusk, Shabbos, violence, cuticle, melodrama, ditch, honey, doily… None of it moved her. She addressed her world honestly, searching for something deserving of the volumes of love she knew she had within her, but to each she would have to say, I don’t love you. Bark-brown fence post: I don’t love you. Poem too long: I don’t love you. Physics, the idea of you, the laws of you: I don’t love you. Nothing felt like anything more than what it actually was. Everything was just a thing, mired completely in its thingness.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“Nothing embarrassed her. I admired that so much, because everything embarrassed me, and that hurt me.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“THE PROBLEM OF GOOD: WHY UNCONDITIONALLY GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO UNCONDITIONALLY BAD PEOPLE
(SEE GOD)”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“It was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn't think about it at all.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

“Puoi levarti anche le calze?" Gli chiedeva lei. "E i calzoni?"
"E tu ti puoi levare i tuoi?"
"Sono timida anch'io," diceva lei, il che – per quanto avessero visto i rispettivi corpi nudi centinaia, anzi probabilmente migliaia di volte, era vero. Non si erano mai visti da lontano. Non avevano mai conosciuto l’intimità più profonda, quella raggiungibile solo con la distanza. Lei andava al foro e lo guardava in silenzio per alcuni minuti. Poi si riallontanava dal foro. Lui si avvicinava e la guardava a sua volta in silenzio per qualche minuto. E in quel silenzio raggiungevano un’altra intimità, quella delle parole senza parlare.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“Батьки завжди знають більше за дітей, а діти завжди розумніші за своїх батьків.”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер

“Тільки через те, що ти атеїст, не означає, що ти б не хотів знати, для чого існують речі навколо тебе.”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер

“Бо, якщо я комусь розповім, побачене більше мені не належатиме.”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер

“Привидам однаково, віриш ти у них, чи ні.”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер

“Цей світ не такий вже й жахливий, але він повен жахливих людей.”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер

“У пеклі ми помираємо з голоду! У раю ми годуємо один одного!”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер

“Я жалкую, що витратила ціле життя на те, щоб навчитися жити.”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер

“Думаю, якби кожен бачив те, що бачила я, на світі ніколи б не було війни.”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер

“Допоки я думаю, я живу.”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер

“Життя набагато страшніше за смерть.”
― Джонатан Сафран Фоер