Quotes from Jonathan Safran Foer

But that slip of paper wouldn't disappear, ever, and neither would the image of his prostrate wife, and neither would the thought that if he could, it might greatly improve his life to end it.

TV guy and sometimes cooker Gordon Ramsay can get pretty macho with baby animals when doing publicity for something he's selling, but you'll never see a puppy peeking out of one of his pots. And though he once said he'd electrocute his children if they became vegetarian, I wonder what his response would be if they poached the family pooch.

Time passed, the world exerted itself, and Jacob and Julia began to forget to do things on purpose.

But even if the average life expectancy continued to increase by one year with each passing year, it would take forever for people to live forever, so probably no one would ever see it.

We hebben oorlog gevoerd, of eigenlijk hebben we een oorlog laten voeren, tegen alle dieren die we eten. Deze oorlog is nieuw en heeft een naam: bio-industrie. De bio-industrie beschouwt de natuur als een obstakel dat overwonnen moet worden.

Golda Meir had told Anwar Sadat: "We can forgive you for killing our children, but we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I told Gerald, they could make an incredibly long limousine that had it's back seat at your mom's VJ and it's front seat at your mausoleum, and it would be as long as your life.

I'm sorry for my inability to let the unimportant things go, for my inability to hold on to the important things.

Whether we're talking about fish species, pigs, or some other eaten animal, is such suffering the most important thing in the world? Obviously not. But that's not the question. Is it more important than sushi, bacon, or chicken nuggets? That's the question.

She was the tree and also the river flowing away from the tree[.]

we laughed and laughed, together and separately, out loud and silently, we were determined to ignore whatever needed to be ignored, to build a new world from nothing if nothing in our world could be salvaged.

It is a shame that we have to live but it is a tragedy that we get to live only one life.

Everything was incredibly far away from me.

Does it make you sad that we love the kids more than we love each other?" That exact line—those words in that order—had been in the script for months.

Le dérèglement climatique n'est pas un puzzle que l'on pose sur une table basse, vers lequel on peut revenir quand les contraintes horaires nous le permettent et que l'envie nous en prend. Le dérèglement climatique, c'est une maison en flammes.

And there are no cures for the hurt that hurts most. There is only the medicine of believing each other's pain, and being present for it.

il te faut seulement comprendre que te retrouver à la case départ n'est pas une régression. Te retrouver quelque part, c'est une déjà une bonne chose en soi - cela veut dire que tu as conscience de ce que tu fais.

I kept thinking about how they were all the names of dead people, and how names are basically the only thing that dead people keep.

I liked watching the baby make fists.

La seule dichotomie qui compte est celle qui sépare ceux qui agissent de ceux qui ne font rien. [...] Nous exagérons dramatiquement le rôle de ceux qui refusent les conclusions de la science parce que cela permet à ceux qui les acceptent de se sentir en paix avec eux-mêmes, sans pour autant nous mettre au défi d'agir en utilisant le savoir que nous avons intégré.

War! We go on killing each other to no purpose! It is war waged by humanity against humanity, and it will only end when there's no one left to fight.

Let's say what we mean: animals are bled, skinned, and dismembered while conscious. It happens all the time, and the industry and the government know it.

Alex?" I told him yes. "You're my translator, right?" I asked him to be slow, because I could not understand him. In truth I was manufacturing a brick wall of shits.

I think that this is why I relish writing for you so much. It makes it possible for me to be not like I am, but as I desire for Little Igor to see me. I can be funny, because I have time to meditate about how to be funny, and I can repair my mistakes when I perform mistakes, and I can be a melancholy person in manners that are interesting, not only melancholy. With writing, we have second chances.