God, 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 WallaceIt did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.
David Foster WallaceIs it possible really to love other people? If Iโm lonely and in pain, everyone outside me is potential reliefโI need them. But can you really love what you need so badly? Isnโt a big part of love caring more about what the other person needs? How am I supposed to subordinate my own overwhelming need to somebody elseโs needs that I canโt even feel directly? And yet if I canโt do this, Iโm damned to loneliness, which I definitely donโt want โฆ so Iโm back at trying to overcome my selfishness for self-interested reasons.
David Foster WallaceYou have to understand, writing a novel gets very weird and invisible-friend-from-childhood-ish. Then you kill that thing, which was never really alive except in your imagination, and you're supposed to go buy groceries and talk to people at parties and stuff.
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