13 Times Jonathan Safran Foer Wrote Something Really Profound | The Odyssey Online
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13 Times Jonathan Safran Foer Wrote Something Really Profound

Jonathan Safran Foer and his way with words strikes again. And again and again and again.

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13 Times Jonathan Safran Foer Wrote Something Really Profound

Popularized by his novels Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything is Illuminated (and their respective film adaptions), Foer's works have become highly regarded and internationally bestselling in the past few years. 

Foer's writing sticks to brain because of its profound, thoughtful nature and clear voice. His novels seem to jump all over the place in regard to time period and narrative mode, yet every detail and tidbit of history weaves together to create stories unlike any other. 

1. "I never confused what I had with what I was." - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

2. "This is love, she thought, isn't it? When you notice someone's absence and hate that absence more than anything? More, even, than you love his presence?" - Everything is Illuminated

3. "So many people enter and leave your life! Hundreds of thousands of people! You have to keep the door open so they can come in! But it also means you have to let them go!" - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

4."Everything is the way it is because everything was the way it was." - Everything is Illuminated

5. "Feathers filled the small room. Our laughter kept the feathers in the air. I thought about birds. Could they fly if there wasn't someone, somewhere, laughing?" - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

6. "[...]everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us, on the inside, looking out." - Everything is Illuminated

7. "It was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn't think about my life at all." - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

8. "And if we are to strive for a better future, mustn't we be familiar and reconciled with our past?" - Everything is Illuminated

9. "[...]only someone who's never been an animal would put up a sign saying not to feed them[...]" - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

10. "Whether we change our lives or do nothing, we have responded. To do nothing is to do something." - Eating Animals

11. "Every moment before this one depends on this one. Everything in the history of the world can be proven wrong in one moment." - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

12. "We could imagine all sorts of universes unlike this one, but this is the one that happened." - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

13. "It's easy and un-extraordinary to be frightened of life. It's far more difficult to arm yourself with the good stuff despite all the bad and step foot into tomorrow as an everyday warrior.” - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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