“I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.”
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“I am selfish, private and easily bored. Will this be a problem?”
― A Study in Emerald

“Then, one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...you give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore.”
― The Sandman

“Even nothing cannot last forever.”
― American Gods

Solitude
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own,
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all,—
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

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#Poem
Explanation

David Foster Wallace
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Born : February 21, 1962
Died : September 12, 2008
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Was an American novelist, short-story writer, and essayist whose dense works provide a dark, often satirical analysis of American culture.

Wallace became best known for his second novel, Infinite Jest (1996), a massive, multilayered novel that he wrote over the course of four years. In it appear a sweeping cast of postmodern characters that range from recovering alcoholics and foreign statesmen to residents of a halfway house and high-school tennis stars. Infinite Jest was notably the first work of Wallace’s to feature what was to become his stylistic hallmark: the prominent use of notes (endnotes, in this case), which were Wallace’s attempt to reproduce the nonlinearity of human thought on the page.

Wallace had suffered from depression since his early 20s, and, after numerous failed attempts to find an efficacious drug regimen, he took his own life.

“Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.”
― Infinite Jest

“The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.”
― Infinite Jest

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”
― This Is Water

“You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.”
― Infinite Jest

“How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.”
― The Pale King

“Am I a good person? Deep down, do I even really want to be a good person, or do I only want to seem like a good person so that people (including myself) will approve of me? Is there a difference? How do I ever actually know whether I'm bullshitting myself, morally speaking?”
― Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?”
― This Is Water

“Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.”
― Brief Interviews with Hideous Men