She had fallen in love so many times that she began to suspect she was not falling in love at all, but doing something much more ordinary.
Jonathan Safran FoerYou need to have a reader's sympathy in order to accomplish anything. It's like at a reading, I find it's better to read something funny than to read something tragic. It just goes over better because you have a finite amount of time with somebody. Of course, in a book, you have a lot of time. But you still do want to make a certain impression right when you begin.
Jonathan Safran FoerIt's a good rule of thumb, it seems to me: if you're not allowed to see where something comes from, don't put it in your mouth.
Jonathan Safran FoerIt was inevitable: Yankel fell in love with his never-wife. He would wake from sleep to miss the weight that never depressed the bed next to him, remember in earnest the weight of gestures she never made, long for the un-weight of her un-arm slung over his too-real chest, making his widower's rememberences that much more convincing and his pain that much more real.
Jonathan Safran Foer