Book

Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close

Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. <br /

(69 total)

Characters

Jonathan Safran Foer (69)

“Why didn’t I learn to treat everything like it was the last time? My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: The future, Hope, Before and after, My aesthetic

“...there's too much to express. I'm sorry. That's what I've been trying to say to you, I'm sorry for everything...I'm sorry for my inability to let unimportant things go, for my inability to hold on to the important things.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Apologizing, Apologize, I'm Sorry, breakup, Parting Ways

“She wants to know if I love her, that’s all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there, like new batteries in the flashlight in the emergency kit in the hall closet.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Love, Assurance

“It broke my heart into more pieces than my heart was made of, why can’t people say what they mean at the time?”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Poetic, Life, Love, couple, Relationship

“I hope that one day you will have the experience of doing something you do not understand for someone you love.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Love, Sacrifices, Hope, Wish for someone

“I want to tell you everything, without leaving out a single detail. But where is the beginning? And what is everything?”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Intimacy

“I’m so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Love, Fear, Refusal to love, Hiding from love, Fear of losing

“It was terrible. All of the things we couldn’t share. The room was filled with conversations we weren’t having.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Unsaid Things

“I regret that it takes a life to learn how to live.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Regrets, Life, Living, Learning

“No matter how much I feel, I’m not going to let it out. If I have to cry, I’m gonna cry on the inside. If I have to bleed, I’ll bruise. If my heart starts going crazy, I’m not gonna tell everyone in the world about it. It doesn’t help anything. It just makes everyone’s life worse…. But if you’re bur…”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Holding Back, Feeling, emotions

“I spent my life learning to feel less.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Feelings, Life, Introvert

“You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Protection, Sadness, Pain, Happiness

“that’s all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there, like new batteries in the flashlight in the emergency kit in the hall closet.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Want, Love, Knowledge, Existence

“I want to tell you everything, without leaving out a single detail. But where is the beginning? And what is everything?”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: soulmates

“We had everything to say to each other, but no ways to say it.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Everything, Difficulty, talk

“She let out a laugh, and then she put her hand over her mouth, like she was angry at herself for forgetting her sadness.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Forgetting, Laughing, humor, Sadness, Pain

“I spent my life learning to feel less. Every day I felt less. Is that growing old? Or is it something worse? You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Growing Up, Happiness

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Bones, Life, Living

“It broke my heart into more pieces than my heart was made of, why can’t people say what they mean at the time?”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Relationships, Heartbreak

“She wants to know if I love her, that's all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there...”

— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com

Tagged: Love, Love & Connection, Feelings, Feelings of Love, Love & Relationships