“To remember my values, I need to lose certain tastes and find other handles for the memories that they once helped me carry.” NeedsRememberCertainValuesLosesMemoriesTasteHandle Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“We shouldn't be intimidated by someone else's idea of perfection if it will prevent us from taking steps we actively want to take.” IfsWantIdeasStepsPerfectionIntimidated Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“We've made science experiments of ourselves and our children.” ChildrenMadeOur ChildrenExperiments Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“Words are capable of making experience more vivid, and also of organizing it. They can scare us, and they can comfort us.” ComfortCapableScareVivid Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“Writers now are putting total faith in designers at Apple and Amazon. It's almost like a race-car driver having no input into how cars are designed.” RaceCarDesignerApplesDriversAmazonInputRace CarRace Car Driver Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“I'm less worried about accomplishment - as younger people always can't help but be - and more concerned with spending my time well, spending time with my family, and reading, learning things.” PeopleWellsHelpingReadingConcernedMy FamilySpendingWorriedAccomplishmentMy TimeSpending Time Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“My greatest fear is feeling like a professional novelist. Somebody who creates characters, who sits down and has pieces of paper taped to the wall - what's going to happen in this scene, or this act. What I like is for it to be a much more scary, sloppy reflection of who I am.” CharacterFeelingsHappensPiecesWallScenePaperReflectionDown AndScaryWho I AmNovelistsSloppyGreatest Fear Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“People who care about animals tend to care about people. They don't care about animals to the exclusion of people. Caring is not a finite resource and, even more than that, it's like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.” PeopleCareAnimalExerciseResourcesStrongerDon't CareCaringMusclesWho CaresFiniteExclusion Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“There are two kinds of sculptures. There's the kind that subtracts: Michelangelo starts with a block of marble and chips away. And then there is the kind that adds, building with clay, piling it on. The way I write novels is to keep piling on and piling on and piling on.” WayWritingKindTwoNovelBuildingAddBlockSculptureChipsClayMarble Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“There is a glaring reason that the necessary total ban on nontherapeutic use of antibiotics hasn't happened: The factory farm industry, allied with the pharmaceutical industry, has more power than public-health professionals.” ReasonUseHappenedIndustryFarmsFactoriesBansPublic HealthPharmaceuticalAntibioticsPharmaceutical IndustryHealth Professionals Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“There is an overabundance of rational reasons to say no to factory-farmed meat: It is the No. 1 cause of global warming, it systematically forces tens of billions of animals to suffer in ways that would be illegal if they were dogs, it is a decisive factor in the development of swine and avian flus, and so on.” IfsWayReasonWould BeSufferingForceCausesAnimalDogDevelopmentBillionsRationalFactorsMeatGlobal WarmingIllegalFactoriesFluSwineOverabundanceCauses Of Global Warming Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“I often think about how my sons will come to know about September 11th. Something overheard? A newspaper image? In school? I would prefer that they learn about it from my wife and me, in a deliberate and safe way. But it's hard to imagine ever feeling ready to broach the subject without some impetus.” ThinkingKnowsWayHardFeelingsSchoolWifeImagineSubjectsSonReadySafeMy WifeNewspapersMy SonSeptemberDeliberateImpetusSeptember 11th Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“I usually write away from home, in coffee shops, on trains, on planes, in friends’ houses. I like places where there’s stuff going on that you can lift your eyes, see something interesting, overhear a conversation.” WritingHomeEyeHouseStuffInterestingConversationTrainCoffeeLiftsPlanesShopsAway From HomeSomething InterestingCoffee Shop Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“In America right now, we use words like 'smart' to talk about bombs. American rhetoric is grounded in ideas of capital-G Good, capital-E Evil, and it's very clear who is on which side. But in a book you can do just the opposite. You can use all lower-case words.” BookIdeasUseAmericaEvilSidesCan DoCasesClearRight NowSmartOppositesBombsRhetoricGrounded Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“Jews have a special relationship to books, and the Haggadah has been translated more widely, and reprinted more often, than any other Jewish book. It is not a work of history or philosophy, not a prayer book, user’s manual, timeline, poem or palimpsest - and yet it is all these things.” Has BeensBookPhilosophyPrayerSpecialJewUsersManualsTimelinesSpecial RelationshipPalimpsest Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“Just about every children's book in my local bookstore has an animal for its hero. But then, only a few feet away in the cookbook section, just about every cookbook includes recipes for cooking animals. Is there a more illuminating illustration of our paradoxical relationship with the nonhuman world?” WorldChildrenBookAnimalFeetHeroCookingLocalsSectionsRecipesBookstoresIllustrationParadoxicalChildren's BooksIlluminatingCookbook Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“Living on a planet of fixed size requires compromise, and while we are the only party capable of negotiating, we are not the only party at the table. We've never claimed more, and we've never had less.” PartyPlanetsCapableTablesSizeCompromiseFixedLiving OnNegotiating Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“Look, taste is clearly the crudest of our senses: this is scientifically, objectively factual. It is less nuanced. Eyesight is extraordinary - hearing, touch. I find people who devote their whole lives to taste a little strange.” PeopleLooksLittlesWholeStrangeTasteExtraordinaryHearingWhole LifeSensesFactualEyesight Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“The French, who love their dogs, sometimes eat their horses. The Spanish, who love their horses, sometimes eat their cows. The Indians, who love their cows, sometimes eat their dogs.” SometimesDogHorseIndianCows Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“We need a better way to talk about eating animals, a way that doesn't ignore, or even just shruggingly accept things like habits, cravings, family and history, but rather incorporates them into the conversation. The more they are allowed in, the more strongly we will want to follow our best instincts.” WayNeedsAbleAnimalAcceptingHabitConversationEatingInstinctCravingBetter WaysEating Animals Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“We say no to lots of things that would please us. I would like to punch people every now and then, but I don't. I would like to have something for free rather than pay for it. I would like to skip to the front of the line... I don't mean to brush aside the taste of meat, which is a powerful attraction. But its power is not without limit.” PeopleMeanLinesPowerfulPayFrontsPleaseTasteLimitsAttractionMeatNow And ThenBrushesSkip Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
