John McEnroe...was arguably the best serve-and-volley man of all time, but then McEnroe was an exception to pretty much every predictive norm there was. At his peak (say 1980 to 1984), he was the greatest tennis player who ever lived-the most talented, the most beautiful, the most tormented: a genius. For me, watching McEnroe don a blue polyester blazer and do stiff lame truistic color commentary for TV is like watching Faulkner do a Gap ad.
David Foster WallacePeople, unless they're paying attention, tend to confuse fanciness with intelligence or authority.
David Foster WallaceQuentin Tarantino is interested in watching somebody's ear getting cut off; David Lynch is interested in the ear.
David Foster WallaceBut there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying.
David Foster WallaceThink of the old clichรฉ about โthe mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.โ This, like many clichรฉs, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head.
David Foster Wallace