Are we not all of us fanatics? I say only what you of the U.S.A. pretend you do not know. Attachments are of great seriousness. Choose your attachments carefully. Choose your temple of fanaticism with great care. What you wish to sing of as tragic love is an attachment not carefully chosen. Die for one person? This is a craziness. Persons change, leave, die, become ill. They leave, lie, go mad, have sickness, betray you, die. Your nation outlives you. A cause outlives you.
David Foster WallaceGod, what a ghastly enterprise to be in, though-and what an odd way to achieve success. I'm an exhibitionist who wants to hide, but is unsuccessful at hiding; therefore, somehow I succeed.
David Foster WallaceI'd like to be the sort of person who can enjoy things at the time, instead of having to go back in my head and enjoy them.
David Foster WallaceI never, even for a moment, doubted what theyโd told me. This is why it is that adults and even parents can, unwittingly, be cruel: they cannot imagine doubtโs complete absence. They have forgotten.
David Foster Wallace...and suddenly it occurred to him that the birds, whose twitters and repeated songs sounded so pretty and affirming of nature and the coming day, might actually, in a code known only to other birds, be the birds each saying 'Get away' or 'This branch is mine!' or 'This tree is mine! I'll kill you! Kill, kill!' Or any other manner of dark, brutal, or self-protective stuffโthey might be listening to war cries. The thought came from nowhere and made his spirits dip for some reason.
David Foster Wallace