Shawn > Shawn's Quotes

“How wrong to have been so negative, how wrong to have been so gloomy, how wrong to have run away from life, how wrong to have said no, again and again, instead of yes.”
― Jonathan Franzen

“Imagine that human existence is defined by an Ache: the Ache of our not being, each of us, the center of the universe; of our desires forever outnumbering our means of satisfying them.”
― Jonathan Franzen, How to Be Alone

“For every reader who dies today, a viewer is born, and we seem to be witnessing . . . the final tipping balance.”
― Jonathan Franzen, How to Be Alone

“The world was ending then, it's ending still, and I'm happy to belong to it again.”
― Jonathan Franzen, How to Be Alone

“Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.”
― Joseph Conrad, Chance