Jonathan Franzen Quotes

I think cultures of conformity produce vast quantities of shame, both in people who simply can't conform and people who do conform, but underneath, they're not feeling conformist.

Jonathan Franzen

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Quotes to Explore

• I let characters be human and flawed and relatable.

  

  Taylor Sheridan
  • Human
  • Characters
  • Flawed

• I never smoked. I never drank and I never took drugs. The funny thing is, nothing is more boring, people like this. For me, it's OK. But most of my friends, at least they smoke and drink.

  

  Karl Lagerfeld
  • People
  • Friends
  • Funny

• I did not have a van, or wear Birkenstocks and tie-dyes.

  

  Rachel Zoe
  • Wear
  • Did
  • Van

• Leave Jesus on the cross. He's very happy there!

  

  Carlos Castaneda
  • Happy
  • Jesus
  • Leave

• There is no more respected or influential forum in the field of journalism than the New York Times. I look forward, with great anticipation, to contributing to its op-ed page.

  

  Ted Koppel
  • Great
  • New
  • New York

• Age is just a number. If someone can perform at 45, who will stop that fellow from playing top-level cricket?

  

  Harbhajan Singh
  • Age
  • Stop
  • Someone

• I have been afraid of guns, I have sworn I would never use a gun on another person and so did not need one, and I have wanted to deny the existence of evil.

  

  Taya Kyle
  • Evil
  • Gun
  • Afraid

• I think that we, as a civilization, need to sit down and figure out how to solve political problems over a table, not over a battlefield.

  

  Gary Sherman
  • Think
  • Political
  • Problems

• If you want to wear long hair or wear that dress, as long as you're not hurting yourself or anybody else, I say do it. If you want to go out and have a romantic, sexy affair, do it.

  

  Florence Henderson
  • Long
  • Hair
  • Yourself

• I've got no respect for any young man who won't join the colors.

  

  Nathan Bedford Forrest
  • Man
  • Respect
  • Colors

• The one thing about going from the audience to the stage in just three years is that you know how it feels to be down there.

  

  Eddie Vedder Pearl Jam
  • Know
  • Down
  • Three

• I remember, as a kid, I'd follow the rooster and the chickens and watch what type of grass they'd eat. And me and my friends would eat that grass, like that was our lunch.

  

  Adam Beach
  • Friends
  • Remember
  • Me

• The poet speaks to all men of that other life of theirs that they have smothered and forgotten.

  

  Edith Sitwell
  • Life
  • Men
  • Poet

• Some of the craziest people I've met, in my life, are some of the most brilliant people I've met.

  

  Katee Sackhoff
  • People
  • Life
  • My Life

• No two wars are identical.

  

  Kate Adie
  • Two
  • Wars
  • Identical

• Any psychologist will tell you that healing comes from honest confrontation with our injury or with our past. Whatever that thing is that has hurt us or traumatized us, until we face it head on, we will have issues moving forward in a healthy way.

  

  Nate Parker
  • Past
  • Moving
  • Hurt

• One knows less about one's own destiny than about anything else on earth.

  

  Gabrielle Roy
  • Earth
  • Destiny
  • Own

• Marx and Engels never talked about murdering the bourgeois. According to the old bourgeois concept, the judges were the ones who judged, and the executioners were the ones who executed.

  

  Fidel Castro
  • Never
  • Old
  • Judges

• Just watching TV as a kid, for a long time I thought, as a young kid, obviously when I was, like, 4 or 5, I thought that people lived in the television.

  

  Larenz Tate
  • People
  • Time
  • Long

• When I was growing up, it was Clint Eastwood, it was Harrison Ford and Steve McQueen - these guys were tough. They were leading men, but they were also tough and physical.

  

  Joe Manganiello
  • Up
  • Men
  • Growing

• Cornish wrestling was very different from that in Devon - it was less brutal, as no kicking was allowed.

  

  Sabine Baring-Gould
  • Different
  • Wrestling
  • Less

• Now when I was a teenager, I was angsty as any teenager was, but after 17 years of having a mother who was in and out of my life like a yo-yo and a father who was faceless, I was angry.

  

  Jarrett J. Krosoczka
  • Life
  • Mother
  • Father

• I think cultures of conformity produce vast quantities of shame, both in people who simply can't conform and people who do conform, but underneath, they're not feeling conformist.

  

  Jonathan Franzen
  • People
  • Feeling