The problem with making a virtual world of oneself is akin to the problem with projecting ourselves onto a cyberworld: thereโs no end of virtual spaces in which to seek stimulation, but their very endlessness, the perpetual stimulation without satisfaction, becomes imprisoning.
Jonathan FranzenTo me, the point of a novel is to take you to a still place. You can multitask with a lot of things, but you canโt really multitask reading a book.
Jonathan FranzenEverything he'd done with regard to her in the last three years had been calculated to foreclose the intensely personal sort of talks they'd had when he was younger: to get her to shut up, to train her to contain herself, to make her stop pestering him with her overfull heart and her uncensored self. And now that the training was complete and she was obediently trivial with him, he felt bereft of her and wanted to undo it.
Jonathan Franzen