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Human lives exist to be experienced, or possibly endured, but not solved. They resemble any other novel more than they do mysteries. Westerns, even. It’s that lie the mystery tells that I detest.

— Jonathan Lethem The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye (1996)

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More quotes by Jonathan Lethem

Feeling unique is what we all have in common, it’s the thing that’s always the same.

The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye (1996)

People believe what they need to believe.

The Arrest (2020)

He’s just a classic scapegoat, told people things they didn’t want to hear. There’s never any percentage in being ahead of your time.

Amnesia Moon (1995)

I’d joined the ever-growing category of things that look better when you leave the light off.

Gun, with Occasional Music (1994)

What better way to keep people under your thumb? Make up some big enemy, justify everything as part of the war effort.

Amnesia Moon (1995)

All Jonathan Lethem quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jonathan Lethem (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.