278 Quotes by Jonathan Lethem

May one plead, Your Honor, postmodernism as an involuntary condition?

Nerds are just deep, and neurotic, fans. Needy fans. We’re all nerds, on one subject or another.

Anyone could see it all coming and no one could possibly stop it and that was the beautiful thing. Friday night was open wide and writ in stone.

I‘ve always agreed with the view that – with science fiction – its predictive powers were the least important or least relevant aspect of its public profile. I always loved stuff like Orwell‘s 1984, where he explicitly said “It‘s 1948, reversed.” I liked writers that were doing allegorical, satirical, fantastical versions of everyday life.

What’s beautiful about art is that it circumscribes a space, a physical and mental space. If you try to put the entire world into every page, you turn out chaos.

I don’t write about anything I don’t love even if that love sometimes gets all screwed up and tormented.

I plan less and less. It’s a great benefit of writing lots, that you get good at holding long narratives in your head like a virtual space.

I prefer old books and find them more relevant. I dislike new books. It’s like drinking wine that’s not ready.

By removing the stories from the morass of things that surround us, I’m hoping to achieve some kind of purer approach to emotional life.