Fiction, poetry, music...these are the places (for me) where loneliness is countenanced, stared down, transfigured, treated.
David Foster WallaceYou will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceTV's "real" agenda is to be "liked," because if you like what you're seeing, you'll stay tuned. TV is completely unabashed about this; it's its sole raison.
David Foster WallaceHe suddenly felt nothing, or rather Nothing, a pre-tornadic stillness of zero sensation, as if he were the very space he occupied.
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 WallaceIf you can think of times in your life that youโve treated people with extraordinary decency and love, and pure uninterested concern, just because they were valuable as human beings. The ability to do that with ourselves. To treat ourselves the way we would treat a really good, precious friend. Or a tiny child of ours that we absolutely loved more than life itself. And I think itโs probably possible to achieve that. I think part of the job weโre here for is to learn how to do it
David Foster Wallace