You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
I like the fans’ sound at night. Do you? It’s like somebody big far away goes like: it’sOKit’sOKit’sOKit’sOK, over and over. From very far away.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The sound of fans at night brings a sense of reassurance and calm, akin to a distant affirmation.
In this quote, David Foster Wallace reflects on the soothing background noise created by fans during the night. He draws a parallel between this sound and a comforting presence that reassures us, suggesting that even when we feel alone, there are distant affirmations that can bring us peace and tranquility.
Themes
FansSoundNightReassurancePeace
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about finding tranquility in everyday life, one might reference this quote to illustrate the comfort of familiar sounds.
More from David Foster Wallace
All quotes →Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.
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It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
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Under fun's new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don't want to see or let anyone else see, and this stuff usually turns out (paradoxically) to be precisely the stuff all writers and readers share and respond to, feel.
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Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.
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Bliss - a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious - lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.
David Foster WallaceRead
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