"Both destiny's kisses and its dope-slaps illustrate an individual person's basic personal powerlessness over the really meaningful events in his life: i.e. almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it. Destiny has no beeper; destiny always leans trenchcoated out of an alley with some sort of Psst that you usually can't even hear because you're in such a rush to or from something important you've tried to engineer."

3 likes

Source: Interview with Larry McCaffery, www.dalkeyarchive.com. 1993.

About the author

David Foster Wallace

Writer

David Foster Wallace was an influential American writer known for his complex narratives and deep explorations of truth and anxiety, particularly in 'Infinite Jest.'

All quotes by David Foster Wallace →

Same author

More quotes by David Foster Wallace

See all →

"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?"

Read quote