The Ecstasy of Influence Quotes

“We writers aren't sculpting in DNA, or even clay or mud, but words, sentences, paragraphs, syntax, voice; materials issued by tongue or fingertips but which upon release dissolve into the atmosphere, into cloud, confection, specter. Language, as a vehicle, is a lemon, a hot rod painted with thrilling flames but crazily erratic to drive, riddled with bugs like innate self-consciousness, embedded metaphors and symbols, helpless intertextuality, and so forth. Despite being regularly driven on prosaic errands (interoffice memos, supermarket receipts, etc.), it tends to veer on its misaligned chassis into the ditch of abstraction, of dream.”
― Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.

“In the sea of words, the in print is foam, surf bubbles riding the top. And it's a dark sea, and deep, where divers need lights on their helmets and would perish at the lower depths.”
― Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.

“Memory is a rehearsal for a show that never goes on.”
― Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.

“Most artists are brought to their vocation when their own nascent gifts are awakened by the work of a master. That is to say, most artists are converted to art by art itself.”
― Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.

“The Hippie Parents weren't for all their distraction and funk, for their love triangles and LPs and antiwar demonstrations, illiterates...You'd find the books in the downstairs bathroom, or on their bedside tables, or maybe see them unwrapped at holidays as gifts, a cherished revelation passed from one to another, shared like a joint...”
― Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.