Quotes from David Foster Wallace

Lenz on the way home finds himself under huge hydrolystic compulsion to have Green right there by his side—or basically anyone who can't get away or won't go away—right there with him, and to share with Green or any compliant ear pretty much every experience and thought he's ever had, to give each datum of the case of R. Lenz shape and visible breath as his whole life (and then some) tear-asses across his mind's arctic horizon, trailing phosphenes. He

I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.

potential may be worse than none, Jim.

OCCIDERE POSSUNT SED TE EDERE NON POSSUNT NEFAS EST

Ci sono due pesci che nuotano e a un certo punto incontrano un pesce anziano che va nella direzione opposta, fa un cenno di saluto e dice: Salve, ragazzi. Com'è l'acqua? I due pesci giovani nuotano un altro po', poi uno guarda l'altro e fa Che cavolo è l'acqua?».

Jim's internal life was to Orin a black hole, Orin said, his father's face any room's fifth wall.

Things get very abstract. The concrete room was the sum of abstract facts. Are facts abstract, or are they just abstract representations of concrete things?

There was something almost unbearably touching about a bald spot on a handicapped man.

I'm just afraid of having a tombstone that says HERE LIES A PROMISING OLD MAN.

Each work's title is followed: by either its year of completion, or by 'B.S.,' designating undated completion before Subsidization;

Help, the working Account Representative called, feeling the stir of a tinily remembered humid wind and pausing, again, to look behind him, past the Brougham's black hood and the carelessly dropped safety helmet beside the white cycle, at the Ramp that spiraled up and out of sight toward a street, empty and bright, before the Building, empty and bright, dispossessed, autonomous and autonomic. Bent to what two lives required, below everything, he called for help again and again.

The fake ring and fictional spouse. It's like you're inventing somebody you love just to seduce somebody else into helping you betray her. What's it like. It's like suborning somebody into you desecrate a tomb they don't know is empty.

I know bashing, Pat, and this was unabashed bashing at its most fascist.

Infinite Jest (I). B.S. Meniscus Films, Ltd. Judith Fukuoka-Hearn; 16/35 mm.; 90(?) minutes; black and white; silent. Incandenza's unfinished and unseen first attempt at commercial entertainment. UNRELEASED

teach you how to accept your nonacceptance

Apparently the term refugee can be plausibly denied if both - I'm quoting direct from Neil's memo here - if both, a, no homemade wagons piled high with worldly goods are pulled by slow bovine animals with curvy horns, and b, if the percentage of children under six who are either, a, naked, or b, squalling at the top of their lungs, or c, both, is under 20% of the total number of children under six in transit.

You in such a case have nothing. You stand on nothing. Nothing of ground or rock beneath your feet. You fall; you blow here and there. How does one say: "tragically, unvoluntarily, lost.

Life is like tennis. Those who serve best usually win.

Evil people never believe they are evil, but rather that everyone else is evil.

I don't think irony's meant to synergize with anything as heartfelt as sadness.

There's no real samizdat in the U.S. per se, First Amendment-wise, I don't think. I suppose ultra-radical Quebecois and Albertan stuff could be considered O.N.A.N.ite samizdat.

Or are you just looking for some Cliff-Note summary so you can incorporate the impression of depth into some new panty-removal campaign?

I read,' I say. 'I study and read. I bet I've read everything you've read. Don't think I haven't. I consume libraries. I wear out spines and ROM-drives. I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.

Commercial comedy's often set up to feature an ironist making devastating sport of someone who's naive or sentimental or pretentious or pompous.