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I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is. But now I think the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world.

— Jonathan Safran Foer Everything Is Illuminated (2002)

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More quotes by Jonathan Safran Foer

It's always possible to wake someone from sleep, but no amount of noise will wake someone who is pretending to be asleep.

Eating Animals (2009)

Shyness is when you turn your head away from something you want. Shame is when you turn your head away from something you do not want.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)

Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)

Words never mean what we want them to mean.

Everything Is Illuminated (2002)

Just how destructive does a culinary preference have to be before we decide to eat something else?

Eating Animals (2009)

All Jonathan Safran Foer quotes →

Attribution

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