I felt despair. The wordβs overused and banalified now, despair, but itβs a serious word, and Iβm using it seriously. For me it denotes a simple admixture β a weird yearning for death combined with a crushing sense of my own smallness and futility that presents as a fear of death. Itβs maybe close to what people call dread or angst. But itβs not these things, quite. Itβs more like wanting to die in order to escape the unbearable feeling of becoming aware that Iβm small and weak and selfish and going without any doubt at all to die. Itβs wanting to jump overboard. β¨ A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: An Essay. Book by David Foster Wallace, 1997.
More Author Quotes
- [T]o really try to be informed and literate today is to feel stupid nearly all the time, and to need help.
- Most of the writers I know are weird hybrids. There's a strong streak of egomania coupled with extreme shyness. Writing's kind of like exhibitionism in private. And there's also a strange loneliness, β¦ βΆ
- Ideally, each piece of art's its own unique object, and its evaluation's always present-tense.
- It's all very confusing. I think I'm very honest and candid, but I'm also proud of how honest and candid I am -- so where does that put me?
- I felt, as I became a later and later bloomer, alienated not just from my own recalcitrant glabrous little body but in a way from the whole elemental exterior I'd come to see as my co-conspirator. β¨ β¦ βΆ
Most Cited Authors
William Shakespeare2362
Cassandra Clare2086
Ralph Waldo Emerson2017
Paulo Coelho1839
Rajneesh1644
Sherrilyn Kenyon1633
Mark Twain1626
C. S. Lewis1624
Rick Riordan1549
Oscar Wilde1401
Albert Einstein1372
J. K. Rowling1274
Rumi1268
Friedrich Nietzsche1258
John Green1254
Swami Vivekananda1206
Thomas Jefferson1179
Richelle Mead1130
Barack Obama1115
Henry David Thoreau1086
Terry Pratchett1070
Stephen King1024
Mahatma Gandhi1019
Jodi Picoult1016
Neil Gaiman977
Haruki Murakami976
Laozi972
27
The Best Quotes
Most Liked Authors
William Shakespeare46.4k
Cassandra Clare40.9k
Ralph Waldo Emerson38.9k
Paulo Coelho35.9k
Rajneesh32k
Sherrilyn Kenyon31.8k
Mark Twain31.7k
C. S. Lewis31k
Rick Riordan30.4k
Oscar Wilde26.9k
Albert Einstein26.8k
J. K. Rowling24.6k
John Green24.5k
Friedrich Nietzsche24.4k
Rumi24.3k
Swami Vivekananda23.3k
Thomas Jefferson22.7k
Richelle Mead22.2k
Barack Obama21.6k
Terry Pratchett21k
Henry David Thoreau20.6k
Stephen King19.8k
Jodi Picoult19.8k
Mahatma Gandhi19.7k
Neil Gaiman19.2k
Laozi19.1k
Haruki Murakami19k
27