Jonathan Franzen Quotes
It's not surprising to see in my own work, looking back, and in the work of some of my peers, an attention to family. It's nice to write a book that does tend toward significance and meaning, and where else are you sure of finding it?
Quotes to Explore
-
I am of the opinion that the appreciation and the desire for what is good takes more study and insight than does the understanding and test for the best music and art.
-
If I get involved in a charity, I really want to be a part of it. I don't want to just put my name on your pamphlet.
-
A sack is way better than any nightclub. A touchdown is way better than any bar experience I've ever had.
-
I work so hard, but... everything just goes my way! It's insane!
-
What I love about the sci-fi community is that it's the most nonjudgmental, inclusive, diverse environment in the country. There's no group of people that is more diverse and inclusive.
-
Denied anything ardently desired, the individual or state will argue and parley just so long - then, if the impelling motive be sufficiently great, will cast aside every rule and break down every acquired inhibition, plunging viciously after the object wished; all the more fantastically savage because of previous repression.
-
Knowing constitutional law helps one at the opera. The trial in 'Billy Budd,' as example, invokes the fugitive slave clause of the U.S. Constitution.
-
I suppose I shouldn't go around admitting I speak untruths on the radio.
-
Sometimes justice is at its most merciful when it's blind.
-
I was supposed to be a doctor. I was supposed to go to Princeton. And everything I was supposed to do I didn't.
-
When I was 13 or 14, my mother used to gift me books that I was dying to read. Those are my most memorable birthday gifts.
-
Whichever party is in office, the Treasury is in power.
-
I didn't understand key signatures or anything, you know. I'd say silly things at the top of a trumpet part like, 'Note, when you play B naturals, make the B naturals a half step lower because they sound funny if they're B naturals.' And some guy said: 'Idiot, just put a flat on the third line and it's a key signature, you know?'
-
If we can return to a government that the Founders, in their wisdom, envisioned for us, we can return to a government that will allow our economy to thrive again, and our people to live in liberty.
-
I always try to start my weekend by running on the beach, which is great fun here in Barcelona.
-
Small lending institutions lack the capability of their larger counterparts to hire the additional manpower necessary to deal with the hundreds of additional regulations created by Dodd-Frank.
-
Horses and horsepower alike are about status and being cool.
-
There were mornings in the make-up trailer where I'd have fits of laughter because of the extraordinary daily events of the shoot. Sometimes, it was all too much to believe. But the wildest things happened.
-
My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions.
-
I remember the old Times Square from when I was younger, and there was a seedy thrill to it. Some of that is gone, which I have a little bit of nostalgia for.
-
The world stood pinned on two thorns. One was ugliness. One was beauty. The truth did not lie in the middle or at either extreme. The truth encompassed both.
-
I love to write and to get to know the people who are listening.
-
The government does a lot of stuff that it shouldn't do - the Department of Education, for instance.
-
It's not surprising to see in my own work, looking back, and in the work of some of my peers, an attention to family. It's nice to write a book that does tend toward significance and meaning, and where else are you sure of finding it?
