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

• We are saved by grace, not by the works of the law. But don't be so quick to write the law off.

  

  Randall Terry
  • Law
  • Grace
  • Quick

• 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

• We don't have a divine right to success. So I agree with a lot of politicians out there when they say, 'We've got serious issues.' We do: immigration, infrastructure. I think income inequality's one of them.

  

  Jamie Dimon
  • Success
  • Serious
  • Immigration

• Mr. Trump understands that attacking the media is the reddest of meat for his base, which has been conditioned to reject reporting from news sites outside of the conservative media ecosystem.

  

  Charlie Sykes
  • Trump

• I've always felt that the traditional novel doesn't give you enough information about the narrator, and I think it's important to know the point of view from which these tales are told: the moral makeup of the teller.

  

  W. G. Sebald
  • Important
  • Moral
  • Information

• Right after college, after growing up in the United States, I moved to India, broadly telling the story of how an old and stagnant country was suddenly waking up. And I came home, back to America, in 2009 after telling that story and writing a book about that.

  

  Anand Giridharadas
  • Up
  • Writing
  • Country

• From a withered tree, a flower blooms.

  

  Gautama Buddha
  • Tree
  • Flower

• 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