Jonathan Franzen quotes - page 3

What you discovered about yourself in raising children wasn't always agreeable or attractive. (Jonathan Franzen)
He couldn't figure out if she was immensely well adjusted or seriously messed up. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
The world was ending then, it's ending still, and I'm happy to belong to it again. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
Integrity's a neutral value. Hyenas have integrity, too. They're pure hyena. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
If you want to have friends, you have to remember that nobody's perfect. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
Stupidity mistook itself for intelligence, whereas intelligence knew its own stupidity. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
But as far as being popular, yeah, I think Dave Barry is really funny. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
We may freak out globally, but we suffer locally. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
I was a late child from my parents, so I grew up surrounded by people a lot older than me. I think even when I was 21, I felt like I was a 70-year-old man. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
I was about 13, in some ways, when I wrote the first book. Approximately 18 when I wrote the second. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
I wrote two plotted books, got some of the fundamentals of storytelling down, then... it's sort of like taking the training wheels off, trying to write a book that's fun in the same way without relying on quite such mechanical or external beats. (Jonathan Franzen)
The Mekons were kind of like the background music of my life. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
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? View quote
Jonathan Franzen
And Silence of the Lambs is a really smart book. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
It's just a matter of writing the kind of book I enjoy reading. Something better be happening at the beginning, and then on every page after, or I get irritated. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
I really enjoy doing both, but I didn't write nonfiction until 1994. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
I used to think it was hard to write, and I still find the process more or less unpleasant, but if I know what I'm doing it rattles along, then the rewrite whips it into shape rather quickly. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
I feel as if I'm clearly part of a trend among writers who take themselves seriously - and I confess to taking myself as seriously as the next writer. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
It's very liberating for me to realize that I don't have to step up to the plate with a plot that involves the U.N. Security Council. View quote
Jonathan Franzen
If you're interested in how people behave, if you're interested in the way they talk about themselves, the way the conceive of themselves, it's very hard to ignore drugs nowadays, because that is so much part of the conversation. View quote
Jonathan Franzen