jonathan-safran-foer

The next morning I told Mom I couldn't go to school again. She asked what was wrong. I told her, __he same thing that__ always wrong._ __ou__e sick?_ __'m sad._ __bout Dad?_ __bout everything._ She sat down on the bed next to me, even though I knew she was in a hurry. __hat's everything?_ I started counting on my fingers: __he meat and dairy products in our refrigerator, fistfights, car accidents, Larry__ __ho's Larry?_ __he homeless guy in front of the Museum of Natural History who always says __ promise it__ for food_ after he asks for money._ She turned around and I zipped her dress while I kept counting. __ow you don__ know who Larry is, even though you probably see him all the time, how Buckminster just sleeps and eats and goes to the bathroom and has no __aison d__tre_, the short ugly guy with no neck who takes tickets at the IMAX theater, how the sun is going to explode one day, how every birthday I always get at least one thing I already have, poor people who get fat because they eat junk food because it__ cheaper_ That was when I ran out of fingers, but my list was just getting started, and I wanted it to be long, because I knew she wouldn't leave while I was still going. __domesticated animals, how I have a domesticated animal, nightmares, Microsoft Windows, old people who sit around all day because no one remembers to spend time with them and they__e embarrassed to ask people to spend time with them, secrets, dial phones, how Chinese waitresses smile even when there__ nothing funny or happy, and also how Chinese people own Mexican restaurants but Mexican people never own Chinese restaurants, mirrors, tape decks, my unpopularity in school, Grandma__ coupons, storage facilities, people who don__ know what the Internet is, bad handwriting, beautiful songs, how there won__ be humans in fifty years__ __ho said there won't be humans in fifty years?_ I asked her, __re you an optimist or a pessimist?_ She looked at her watch and said, __'m optimistic._ __hen I have some bed news for you, because humans are going to destroy each other as soon as it becomes easy enough to, which will be very soon._ __hy do beautiful songs make you sad?_ __ecause they aren't true._ __ever?_ __othing is beautiful and true.

Fuck You!' [Oskar said] 'Exuse me!' [His mom said] 'Sorry. I mean, screw you.' 'You need a time-out!' 'I need a mausoleum!

God loves the plagiarist. And so it is written, 'God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them." God is the original plagiarizer. With a lack of reasonable sources from which to filch - man created in the image of what? the animals? - the creation of man was an act of reflexive plagiarizing; God looted the mirror. When we plagiarize, we are likewise creating in the image and participating in the completion of Creation.

I kept thinking how they were all names of dead people, and how names are basically the only thing dead people keep.

To feel alone is to be alone.