Infinite Jest

by David Foster Wallace

WE ARE WHAT WE WALK BETWEEN.’

Everyone should get at least one good look at the eyes of a man who finds himself rising toward what he wants to pull down to himself.

‘I’m not denying anything. I’m simply asking you to define “alcoholic.”

That loneliness is not a function of solitude.

That it is statistically easier for low-IQ people to kick an addiction than it is for high-IQ people.

That the people to be most frightened of are the people who are the most frightened.

That, perversely, it is often more fun to want something than to have it.

the difference between suicide and homicide consisting perhaps only in where you think you discern the cage’s door:

Gately had to do was for fuck’s sake give himself a break and relax and for once shut up and just follow the directions on the side of the fucking box. It didn’t matter one fuckola whether Gately like believed a cake would result, or whether he understood the like fucking baking-chemistry of how a cake would result: if he just followed the motherfucking directions, and had sense enough to get help from slightly more experienced bakers to keep from fucking the directions up if he got confused somehow, but basically the point was if he just followed the childish directions, a cake would result.

The more pain in my self, the more I am inside the self

The fear of the pain is many times worse than the pain of the pain,

The original sense of addiction involved being bound over, dedicated, either legally or spiritually.