You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
The fun of reading as "an exchange between consciousnesses, a way for human beings to talk to each other about stuff we can't normally talk about."
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading allows for deep and meaningful conversations about complex topics.
In this quote, David Foster Wallace highlights the unique ability of reading to facilitate a connection between individuals. It suggests that literature serves as a medium through which people can engage in discussions about intricate issues and feelings that are often difficult to express in everyday conversations, thus fostering greater understanding and empathy among readers.
Themes
ReadingCommunicationLiteratureUnderstandingConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a book club meeting, you might quote this to emphasize the deeper discussions about human experiences that reading enables.
More from David Foster Wallace
All quotes βEverything 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 youβve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and itβs 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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