My whole life I've been a fraud. I'm not exaggerating. Pretty much all I've ever done all the time is try to create a certain impression of me in other people. Mostly to be liked or admired. It's a little more complicated than that, maybe. But when you come right down to it it's to be liked, loved. Admired, approved of, applauded, whatever. You get the idea.
David Foster WallaceItโs a very American illness, the idea of giving yourself away entirely to the idea of working in order to achieve some sort of brass ring that usually involves people feeling some way about you โ I mean, people wonder why we walk around feeling alienated and lonely and stressed out.
David Foster WallaceTrue heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and careโwith no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.
David Foster WallaceA lot of writers tired of doing kind of hip, slick, funny, dark, exploding hypocrisy, underlining once again the point that life is a farce and we're all in it for ourselves and that the point of life is to amass as much money/fame/sexual gratification, you know, whatever your personal thing is, and that everything else is just glitter or PR image - that we're tired of sort of doing that stuff over and over again.
David Foster Wallace