"I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it."
"a large percentage of bright young men and women locate the impetus behind their career choice in the belief that they are fundamentally different from the common run of man, unique and in certain crucial ways superior, more as it were central, meaningful - what else could explain the fact that they themselves have been at the exact center of all they've experienced for the whole 20 years of their conscious lives? - and that they can and will make a difference in their chosen field simply by the fact of their unique and central presence to it..."
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Source: Oblivion: Stories (Mister Squishy). Book by David Foster Wallace, June 8, 2004.
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"It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art."
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"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?"
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