Quotes from Jonathan Safran Foer

That's not true, I said, not knowing what the next words out of my mouth would be, but wanting them to be mine, wanting, more than I'd ever wanted anything, to express the center of me and be understood.

So many days in their shared life. So many experiences. How had they managed to spend the previous sixteen years unlearning each other? How had all the presence summed to disappearance?

L'unica cosa più dolorosa dell'essere obliatori attivi è essere rammentatori inerti.

All told, farmed animals in the United States produce 130 times as much waste as the human population —

Ci promise che tutto sarebbe andato bene. Anche se ero una bambina sapevo che non sarebbe andato così. Ma questo non faceva di mio padre un bugiardo. Faceva di lui mio padre.

Aloneness isn't loneliness.

I had to do it for myself.

I do not love famous nightclubs. They make me feel very cheerless and abandoned. Am I applying that word correctly? Abandoned?

My family cares very much about caring for him, but not enough to actually care.

When we lift our forks, we hang our hats somewhere. We set ourselves in one relationship or another to farmed animals, farmworkers, national economies, and global markets. Not making a decision - eating like everyone else - is to make the easiest decision, a decision that is increasingly problematic.

Ze wil weten of ik van haar hou, dat is eigenlijk het enige wat de ene mens van de ander wil, het gaat niet om de liefde op zich, maar om het idee dat de liefde er is, zoiets als nieuwe batterijen in een zaklantaarn in de noodkist in de gangkast

Menachem's problem was this: he had more money than there were things to buy. Menachem's solution was this: rather than buy more things, he would continue to buy the things he already owned

Ik dacht, het is jammer dat we moeten leven, maar het is doodzonde dat we maar één leven krijgen, want als ik twee levens had gehad, had ik er eentje met haar doorgebracht. Dan was ik bij haar in de flat blijven wonen

Verlegenheid is als je je afkeert van iets wat je wilt. Schaamte is als je je afkeert van iets wat je niet wilt.

Compounding Julia's irritation was the fact that Mark and Jennifer were the parents of one of Sam's friends, and thought of Jacob and Julia as their friends, and wanted to have a coffee after to "catch up." Julia liked them and, insofar as she could muster enthusiasm for extrafamilial relations, considered them friends. But she couldn't muster much. At least not until she could catch up with herself.

We are not only the tellers of our stories, we are the stories themselves.

In my dream, spring came after summer, came after fall, came after winter, came after spring.

The kids silenced. OK,' Julia said. Well, as you probably know, I'm Sam's mom. He told me not to make a big deal, so I'll keep this to the essentials. First, I want to let you all know how totally psyched I am to be here with you. Sam closed his eyes, willing himself to unlearn object permanence.

How much currency would a Negro homosexual accountant receive?

Between 1950 and 1970, the number of American farms declined by half, the number of people employed in farming declined by half, and the size of the average farm doubled. During that time, the size of the average chicken has doubled.

Her grief is replaced with a useful sadness.

In Ukraine one cup of coffee is five dollars!

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.

He would fall asleep with his heart at the foot of his bed, like some domesticated animal that was no part of him at all.