Jonathan Lethem Want Quotations

I want what we all want," said Carl. "To move certain parts of the interior of myself into the exterior world, to see if they can be embraced.

Apologies aren't something you want to get in the habit of practicing in the mirror

For me, music is sort of the art that I can't incorporate into my person the way I want to.

It's now expected of me that I will defy expectation, so I really generally seem to be free to write what I want.

What's lucky about my career in general is that I stumbled into what every writer most wants. Not repeating myself and doing strange things has become my trademark.

Teenage life - possibly adult life too is all about what you want and can’t have. And then about what you receive and misuse.

So much of the effort that goes into writing prose for me is about making sentences that capture the music that I'm hearing in my head. It takes a lot of work, writing, writing, and rewriting to get the music exactly the way you want it to be.

I'm not planning what I listen to, except when I think the music can guide me to some emotional place I want to be reminded of.