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100 Great Quotes By David Foster Wallace That Will Help You Craft Literary Oeuvre

Famous As: Writer
Born On: February 21, 1962
Died On: September 12, 2008
Born In: Ithaca, New York, United States
Died At Age: 46
David Foster Wallace was a prolific American writer and and creative writing instructor. Wallace was crowned as one of the most innovative and influential writers of the last twenty years. His book titled, ‘Infinite Jest’ made it to the list of ‘One of the hundred best English-language novel’ to be published between 1923-2005. In 2012, his last novel ‘The Pale King’ became the final selection for ‘Pulitzer Prize For Fiction’. Wallace’s thoughts, work, writings, views, opinions and books have inspired many writers which include, ‘Matthew Gallaway’, ‘Jonathan Franzen’, ‘Dave Eggers’, ‘Charles Yu’, ‘Rivka Galchen’, ‘Elizabeth Wurtzel’, ‘George Saunders’ and ‘Darin Strauss’. Read through the famous quotable quotations and sayings by David Foster Wallace which have been gathered from his writings, essays, short-stories, books, work and life.
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Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.

Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.

David Foster Wallace
I do things like get in a taxi and say,

I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.

David Foster Wallace
The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.

The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.

David Foster Wallace
You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.

You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.

David Foster Wallace
We're all lonely for something we don't know we're lonely for. How else to explain the curious feeling that goes around feeling like missing somebody we've never even met?

We're all lonely for something we don't know we're lonely for. How else to explain the curious feeling that goes around feeling like missing somebody we've never even met?

David Foster Wallace
Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it.

Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it.

David Foster Wallace
Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you.

Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you.

David Foster Wallace
Fiction’s about what it is to be a fucking human being.

Fiction’s about what it is to be a fucking human being.

David Foster Wallace
It's weird to feel like you miss someone you're not even sure you know.

It's weird to feel like you miss someone you're not even sure you know.

David Foster Wallace
Whatever you get paid attention for is never what you think is most important about yourself.

Whatever you get paid attention for is never what you think is most important about yourself.

David Foster Wallace
The parts of me that used to think I was different or smarter or whatever, almost made me die.

The parts of me that used to think I was different or smarter or whatever, almost made me die.

David Foster Wallace
How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.

How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.

David Foster Wallace
Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.

Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.

David Foster Wallace
It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.

It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.

David Foster Wallace
I had kind of a midlife crisis at twenty which probably doesn’t augur well for my longevity

I had kind of a midlife crisis at twenty which probably doesn’t augur well for my longevity

David Foster Wallace
Lonely people tend, rather, to be lonely because they decline to bear the psychic costs of being around other humans. They are allergic to people. People affect them too strongly.

Lonely people tend, rather, to be lonely because they decline to bear the psychic costs of being around other humans. They are allergic to people. People affect them too strongly.

David Foster Wallace
There's good self-consciousness, and then there's toxic, paralyzing, raped-by-psychic-Bedouins self-consciousness.

There's good self-consciousness, and then there's toxic, paralyzing, raped-by-psychic-Bedouins self-consciousness.

David Foster Wallace
You have decided being scared is caused mostly by thinking.

You have decided being scared is caused mostly by thinking.

David Foster Wallace
Te Occidere Possunt Sed Te Edere Non Possunt Nefas Est

Te Occidere Possunt Sed Te Edere Non Possunt Nefas Est" ("They can kill you, but the legalities of eating you are quite a bit dicier").

David Foster Wallace
What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.

What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.

David Foster Wallace
...logical validity is not a guarantee of truth.

...logical validity is not a guarantee of truth.

David Foster Wallace
Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.

Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.

David Foster Wallace
And Lo, for the Earth was empty of Form, and void. And Darkness was all over the Face of the Deep. And We said: 'Look at that fucker Dance.

And Lo, for the Earth was empty of Form, and void. And Darkness was all over the Face of the Deep. And We said: 'Look at that fucker Dance.

David Foster Wallace
The thing about people who are truly and malignantly crazy: their real genius is for making the people around them think they themselves are crazy. In military science this is called Psy-Ops, for your info.

The thing about people who are truly and malignantly crazy: their real genius is for making the people around them think they themselves are crazy. In military science this is called Psy-Ops, for your info.

David Foster Wallace
Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

David Foster Wallace
To be, in a word, unborable.... It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish

To be, in a word, unborable.... It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish

David Foster Wallace
I'd like to be the sort of person who can enjoy things at the time, instead of having to go back in my head and enjoy them.

I'd like to be the sort of person who can enjoy things at the time, instead of having to go back in my head and enjoy them.

David Foster Wallace
I have filled 3 Mead notebooks trying to figure out whether it was Them or Just Me.

I have filled 3 Mead notebooks trying to figure out whether it was Them or Just Me.

David Foster Wallace
True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.

True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.

David Foster Wallace
The interesting thing is why we're so desperate for this anesthetic against loneliness.

The interesting thing is why we're so desperate for this anesthetic against loneliness.

David Foster Wallace
Sarcasm and jokes were often the bottle in which clinical depressives sent out their most plangent screams for someone to care and help them.

Sarcasm and jokes were often the bottle in which clinical depressives sent out their most plangent screams for someone to care and help them.

David Foster Wallace
... That no single, individual moment is in and of itself unendurable.

... That no single, individual moment is in and of itself unendurable.

David Foster Wallace
Every love story is a ghost story.

Every love story is a ghost story.

David Foster Wallace
Mary had a little lamb, its fleece electrostatic / And everywhere Mary went, the lights became erratic.

Mary had a little lamb, its fleece electrostatic / And everywhere Mary went, the lights became erratic.

David Foster Wallace
I never, even for a moment, doubted what they’d told me. This is why it is that adults and even parents can, unwittingly, be cruel: they cannot imagine doubt’s complete absence. They have forgotten.

I never, even for a moment, doubted what they’d told me. This is why it is that adults and even parents can, unwittingly, be cruel: they cannot imagine doubt’s complete absence. They have forgotten.

David Foster Wallace
I'd tell you all you want and more, if the sounds I made could be what you hear

I'd tell you all you want and more, if the sounds I made could be what you hear

David Foster Wallace
The integrity of my sleep has been forever compromised, sir.

The integrity of my sleep has been forever compromised, sir.

David Foster Wallace
Mediocrity is contextual.

Mediocrity is contextual.

David Foster Wallace
There are no choices without personal freedom, Buckeroo. It's not us who are dead inside. These things you find so weak and contemptible in us---these are just the hazards of being free.

There are no choices without personal freedom, Buckeroo. It's not us who are dead inside. These things you find so weak and contemptible in us---these are just the hazards of being free.

David Foster Wallace
God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I’m not crazy about.

God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I’m not crazy about.

David Foster Wallace
Quentin Tarantino is interested in watching somebody's ear getting cut off; David Lynch is interested in the ear.

Quentin Tarantino is interested in watching somebody's ear getting cut off; David Lynch is interested in the ear.

David Foster Wallace
Psychotics, say what you want about them, tend to make the first move.

Psychotics, say what you want about them, tend to make the first move.

David Foster Wallace
The sun like a sneaky keyhole view of hell.

The sun like a sneaky keyhole view of hell.

David Foster Wallace
Why not? Why not?Why not not, then, if the best reasoning you can contrive is why not?

Why not? Why not?Why not not, then, if the best reasoning you can contrive is why not?

David Foster Wallace
I don't think writers are any smarter than other people. I think they may be more compelling in their stupidity, or in their confusion.

I don't think writers are any smarter than other people. I think they may be more compelling in their stupidity, or in their confusion.

David Foster Wallace
Truly decent, innocent people can be taxing to be around.

Truly decent, innocent people can be taxing to be around.

David Foster Wallace
...morning is the soul's night.

...morning is the soul's night.

David Foster Wallace
You are what you love. No? You are, completely and only, what you would die for without, as you say, the thinking twice.

You are what you love. No? You are, completely and only, what you would die for without, as you say, the thinking twice.

David Foster Wallace
This is so American, man: either make something your god and cosmos and then worship it, or else kill it.

This is so American, man: either make something your god and cosmos and then worship it, or else kill it.

David Foster Wallace
I am not what you see and hear.

I am not what you see and hear.

David Foster Wallace
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.

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.

David Foster Wallace
The assumption that you everyone else is like you. That you are the world. The disease of consumer capitalism. The complacent solipsism.

The assumption that you everyone else is like you. That you are the world. The disease of consumer capitalism. The complacent solipsism.

David Foster Wallace
Almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it.

Almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it.

David Foster Wallace
...the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

...the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

David Foster Wallace
...most Substance-addicted people are also addicted to thinking, meaning they have a compulsive and unhealthy relationship with their own thinking.

...most Substance-addicted people are also addicted to thinking, meaning they have a compulsive and unhealthy relationship with their own thinking.

David Foster Wallace
To make someone an icon is to make him an abstraction, and abstractions are incapable of vital communication with living people.

To make someone an icon is to make him an abstraction, and abstractions are incapable of vital communication with living people.

David Foster Wallace
There is no hatred in my love for you. Only a sadness I feel all the more strongly for my inability to explain or describe it.

There is no hatred in my love for you. Only a sadness I feel all the more strongly for my inability to explain or describe it.

David Foster Wallace
My bones are ringing the way sometimes people say their ears are ringing, I'm so tired.

My bones are ringing the way sometimes people say their ears are ringing, I'm so tired.

David Foster Wallace
That everything is on fire, slow fire, and we're all less than a million breaths away from an oblivion more total than we can even bring ourselves to even try to imagine...

That everything is on fire, slow fire, and we're all less than a million breaths away from an oblivion more total than we can even bring ourselves to even try to imagine...

David Foster Wallace
He suddenly felt nothing, or rather Nothing, a pre-tornadic stillness of zero sensation, as if he were the very space he occupied.

He suddenly felt nothing, or rather Nothing, a pre-tornadic stillness of zero sensation, as if he were the very space he occupied.

David Foster Wallace
In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

David Foster Wallace
... it takes great personal courage to let yourself appear weak.

... it takes great personal courage to let yourself appear weak.

David Foster Wallace
Hell hath no fury like a coolly received postmodernist.

Hell hath no fury like a coolly received postmodernist.

David Foster Wallace
Tell them there are no holes for your fingers in the masks of men. Tell them how could you ever even hope to love what you can't grab onto.

Tell them there are no holes for your fingers in the masks of men. Tell them how could you ever even hope to love what you can't grab onto.

David Foster Wallace
All I'm saying is that it's shortsighted to blame TV. It's simply another symptom. TV didn't invent our aesthetic childishness here any more than the Manhattan Project invented aggression.

All I'm saying is that it's shortsighted to blame TV. It's simply another symptom. TV didn't invent our aesthetic childishness here any more than the Manhattan Project invented aggression.

David Foster Wallace
Capital T-truth is about life before death.

Capital T-truth is about life before death.

David Foster Wallace
Words and a book and a belief that the world is words...

Words and a book and a belief that the world is words...

David Foster Wallace
American experience seems to suggest that people are virtually unlimited in their need to give themselves away, on various levels. Some just prefer to do it in secret.

American experience seems to suggest that people are virtually unlimited in their need to give themselves away, on various levels. Some just prefer to do it in secret.

David Foster Wallace
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.

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.

David Foster Wallace
Everything I’ve ever let go of had claw marks on it.

Everything I’ve ever let go of had claw marks on it.

David Foster Wallace
I don't want to hurt myself. I want to stop hurting.

I don't want to hurt myself. I want to stop hurting.

David Foster Wallace
I wish you way more than luck.

I wish you way more than luck.

David Foster Wallace
There are secrets within secrets, though--always.

There are secrets within secrets, though--always.

David Foster Wallace
...Genuine pathological openness is about as seductive as Tourette's Syndrome.

...Genuine pathological openness is about as seductive as Tourette's Syndrome.

David Foster Wallace
I am concentrating docilely on the question why U.S. restrooms always appear to us as infirmaries for public distress, the place to reagain control.

I am concentrating docilely on the question why U.S. restrooms always appear to us as infirmaries for public distress, the place to reagain control.

David Foster Wallace
It is named the

It is named the "Web" for good reason.

David Foster Wallace
The true thoughts that go on inside us are just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of, at most, one tiny little part of us at any given instant.

The true thoughts that go on inside us are just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of, at most, one tiny little part of us at any given instant.

David Foster Wallace
It's all very confusing. I think I'm very honest and candid, but I'm also proud of how honest and candid I am -- so where does that put me?

It's all very confusing. I think I'm very honest and candid, but I'm also proud of how honest and candid I am -- so where does that put me?

David Foster Wallace
Look. Listen. Use ears I'd be proud to call our own. Listen to the silence behind the engines' noise. Jesus, Sweets, listen. Hear it? It's a love song. 

For whom?

You are loved.

Look. Listen. Use ears I'd be proud to call our own. Listen to the silence behind the engines' noise. Jesus, Sweets, listen. Hear it? It's a love song. For whom? You are loved.

David Foster Wallace
To experience commitment as the loss of options, a type of death, the death of childhood's limitless possibility, of the flattery of choice without duress-this will happen, mark me. Childhood's end.

To experience commitment as the loss of options, a type of death, the death of childhood's limitless possibility, of the flattery of choice without duress-this will happen, mark me. Childhood's end.

David Foster Wallace
Life's endless war against the self you cannot live without.

Life's endless war against the self you cannot live without.

David Foster Wallace
The severing of an established connection is exponentially more painful than the rejection of an attempted connection.

The severing of an established connection is exponentially more painful than the rejection of an attempted connection.

David Foster Wallace
When a solipsist dies ... everything goes with him.

When a solipsist dies ... everything goes with him.

David Foster Wallace
I'm screaming for help and everybody's acting as if I'm singing Ethel Merman covers...

I'm screaming for help and everybody's acting as if I'm singing Ethel Merman covers...

David Foster Wallace
Yes, I'm paranoid — but am I paranoid enough?

Yes, I'm paranoid — but am I paranoid enough?

David Foster Wallace
Please learn the pragmatics of expressing fear: sometimes words that seem to express really invoke.
This can be tricky.

Please learn the pragmatics of expressing fear: sometimes words that seem to express really invoke. This can be tricky.

David Foster Wallace
And he wishes, in the cold quiet of his archer's heart, that he himself could feel the intensity of their reconciliations as strongly as he feels that of their battles.

And he wishes, in the cold quiet of his archer's heart, that he himself could feel the intensity of their reconciliations as strongly as he feels that of their battles.

David Foster Wallace
There are very few innocent sentences in writing.

There are very few innocent sentences in writing.

David Foster Wallace
That it is statistically easier for low-IQ people to kick an addiction than it is for high-IQ people...That boring activities become, perversely, much less boring if you concentrate intently on them.

That it is statistically easier for low-IQ people to kick an addiction than it is for high-IQ people...That boring activities become, perversely, much less boring if you concentrate intently on them.

David Foster Wallace
I'm just afraid of having a tombstone that says HERE LIES A PROMISING OLD MAN.

I'm just afraid of having a tombstone that says HERE LIES A PROMISING OLD MAN.

David Foster Wallace
The job of the first eight pages is not to have the reader want to throw the book at the wall, during the first eight pages.

The job of the first eight pages is not to have the reader want to throw the book at the wall, during the first eight pages.

David Foster Wallace
-the soul's certainty that the day will have to be not traversed but sort of climbed, vertically, and then that going to sleep again at the end of it will be like falling, again, off something tall and sheer.

-the soul's certainty that the day will have to be not traversed but sort of climbed, vertically, and then that going to sleep again at the end of it will be like falling, again, off something tall and sheer.

David Foster Wallace
My worst character flaw that I'm conscious of is that I tend to think my way into circles instead of resolving anything. It's paralyzing and boring for people around me.

My worst character flaw that I'm conscious of is that I tend to think my way into circles instead of resolving anything. It's paralyzing and boring for people around me.

David Foster Wallace
Not that that mystical stuff's necessarily true: The only thing that's capital-T true is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it.

Not that that mystical stuff's necessarily true: The only thing that's capital-T true is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it.

David Foster Wallace
This is water.

This is water.

David Foster Wallace
She committed suicide by putting her extremities down the garbage disposal-first one arm and then, kind of miraculously if you think about it, the other arm.

She committed suicide by putting her extremities down the garbage disposal-first one arm and then, kind of miraculously if you think about it, the other arm.

David Foster Wallace
She took a sort of abject pride in her mecilessness toward herself.

She took a sort of abject pride in her mecilessness toward herself.

David Foster Wallace
Worship your body, beauty, and sexual allure and you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.

Worship your body, beauty, and sexual allure and you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.

David Foster Wallace
That what appears to be egoism so often isn't.

That what appears to be egoism so often isn't.

David Foster Wallace
The depressed person was in terrible and unceasing pain, and the impossibility of sharing or articulating this pain was itself a component of the pain and a contributing factor in its essential horror.

The depressed person was in terrible and unceasing pain, and the impossibility of sharing or articulating this pain was itself a component of the pain and a contributing factor in its essential horror.

David Foster Wallace