“You look at the fact that for millions of years species on earth have been developing and we've been knocking them off at like a hundred a day.” YearsLooksHas BeensFactsEarthMillionsHundredSpeciesDevelopingKnocking Author:Jon Fishman
“You're not there to spread any particular- if you're Bob Marley you're there to spread a message, but very few people can do that effectively without shoving opinions down someone's throat.” PeopleIfsCan DoOpinionParticularMessagesSpreadThroatBobMarley Author:Jon Fishman
“I like contemporary American literature and I like biographies and I like jazz and I like baseball and I like writers who write about the human condition and sci-fi is just something that I happened into.” WritingHumansLiteratureHappenedConditionsBaseballJazzContemporarySci FiHuman ConditionBiographiesAmerican Literature Author:Jonathan Frakes
“When I finally gave up any hope of doing anything representative of the American family, I actually seemed to have tapped into other people's weirdness in that way.” PeopleWayRepresentativesGave UpWeirdnessAmerican Family Author:Jonathan Franzen
“The Mekons were kind of like the background music of my life.” KindBackgroundsBackground Music Author:Jonathan Franzen
“It's very liberating for me to realize that I don't have to step up to the plate with a plot that involves the U.N. Security Council.” RealizingStepsSecurityPlotPlatesCouncilLiberatingStep UpSecurity Council Author:Jonathan Franzen
“It's not surprising to see in my own work, looking back, and in the work of some of my peers, an attention to family. It's nice to write a book that does tend toward significance and meaning, and where else are you sure of finding it?” WritingDoeBookMy OwnAttentionNiceFindingsSignificanceSurprisingLooking BackPeers Author:Jonathan Franzen
“If you're interested in how people behave, if you're interested in the way they talk about themselves, the way the conceive of themselves, it's very hard to ignore drugs nowadays, because that is so much part of the conversation.” PeopleIfsWayHardDrugConversationBehave Author:Jonathan Franzen
“I wrote two plotted books, got some of the fundamentals of storytelling down, then... it's sort of like taking the training wheels off, trying to write a book that's fun in the same way without relying on quite such mechanical or external beats.” WayWritingTryingTwoBookFunBeatsTrainingFundamentalsStorytellingWheelsTraining Wheels Author:Jonathan Franzen
“I was about 13, in some ways, when I wrote the first book. Approximately 18 when I wrote the second.” WayFirstsBook Author:Jonathan Franzen