--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It's like a fugue of evaded responsibility." description: "\"It's like a fugue of evaded responsibility.\" — David Foster Wallace" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7d/david-foster-wallace-161_responsibility_it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibili_682152.jpg" --- # It's like a fugue of evaded responsibility. ![“It's like a fugue of evaded responsibility.” quote by David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7d/david-foster-wallace-161_responsibility_it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibili_682152.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7d/david-foster-wallace-161_responsibility_it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibili_682152.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7d/david-foster-wallace-161_responsibility_it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibili_682152.jpg) > “It's like a fugue of evaded responsibility.” [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Avoiding responsibility creates a chaotic mental pattern that repeats without resolution. **In simple terms:** Dodging duty leads to endless mental loops. Key Takeaway Own your duties to break the cycle. Themes responsibility psychology ethics Mood reflective critical Type philosophical literary When to use this quote - personal relationships - workplace - leadership - family dynamics Key Concepts existentialism self‑awareness Questions to Reflect On - How does avoiding blame affect your mental health? - What steps can you take to accept responsibility? A Different Perspective Responsibility avoidance can be rationalized, making change hard. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Evaded](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/evaded-865854/) [Evaded Responsibility](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/evaded-responsibility-5395426/) [Fugue Evaded](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fugue-evaded-5395427/) [Like Fugue](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/like-fugue-474541/) [Responsibility](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/responsibility/) ## Related quotes > [The blues are like the fugue in 18th century. It's probably the music that belongs most to our time.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-tippett/the-blues-are-like-the-fugue-in-18th-century-it-s-probably-the-music/) [Michael Tippett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-tippett/) > [I could have evaded the FBI a lot longer if I had been able to control my passion for hacking.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-mitnick/i-could-have-evaded-the-fbi-a-lot-longer-if-i-had-been-able-to/) [Kevin Mitnick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-mitnick/) > [“He did not fear death exactly, but he had evaded it for so many years that it had come to seem formidable simply by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-chabon/he-did-not-fear-death-exactly-but-he-had-evaded-it-for-so-many-years/) [Michael Chabon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-chabon/) > [“Have you missed me?" he asked. "What do you think?" she evaded smoothly-but not smoothly enough, because he chuckled. "Good.How much?" "Is your ego…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-mcnaught/have-you-missed-me-he-asked-what-do-you-think-she-evaded-smoothly-but/) [Judith McNaught](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-mcnaught/) > [Some problems are better evaded than solved.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-hoare/some-problems-are-better-evaded-than-solved/) [Tony Hoare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tony-hoare/) > [While life could be evaded, death could not.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-koontz/while-life-could-be-evaded-death-could-not/) [Dean Koontz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-koontz/) > [The bee himself did not evade the schoolboy more than she evaded me, and even at this day I still stand somewhat bewildered, like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-wentworth-higginson/the-bee-himself-did-not-evade-the-schoolboy-more-than-she-evaded-me/) [Thomas Wentworth Higginson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-wentworth-higginson/) > [“Sleep evaded him like an old friend who owed him money.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-newman/sleep-evaded-him-like-an-old-friend-who-owed-him-money/) [james newman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-newman/) > [“I asked my mother when we first met, but she evaded the answer like she does everything else.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/candace-knoebel/i-asked-my-mother-when-we-first-met-but-she-evaded-the-answer-like/) [Candace Knoebel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/candace-knoebel/) > [I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-disraeli/i-have-been-ever-of-opinion-that-revolutions-are-not-to-be-evaded/) [Benjamin Disraeli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-disraeli/) > [There is no more dreary or more repulsive creature than the man who has evaded his genius.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/there-is-no-more-dreary-or-more-repulsive-creature-than-the-man-who/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“Mr. da Silva had a relevant quotation for everything that happened to him and in this way evaded real life.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeffrey-eugenides/mr-da-silva-had-a-relevant-quotation-for-everything-that-happened-to/) [Jeffrey Eugenides](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeffrey-eugenides/) > [Humans are, as Sartre put it, 'condemned to be free'. To insist that science, or God, objectively defines moral values is to abandon our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kenan-malik/humans-are-as-sartre-put-it-condemned-to-be-free-to-insist-that/) [Kenan Malik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kenan-malik/) > [I can't believe that I'm sitting in meetings with Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Annette Bening. I want to take on that responsibility to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roger-ross-williams/i-can-t-believe-that-i-m-sitting-in-meetings-with-steven-spielberg/) [Roger Ross Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roger-ross-williams/) > [Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination-- devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues -- which a man…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-a-heinlein/social-responsibility-above-the-level-of-family-or-at-most-of-tribe/) [Robert A. Heinlein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-a-heinlein/) ## More by David Foster Wallace > [“I felt more solidly composed, now that I was horizontal. I was impossible to knock down.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/i-felt-more-solidly-composed-now-that-i-was-horizontal-i-was/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/we-all-have-our-little-solipsistic-delusions-ghastly-intuitions-of/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“It's no accident that in a bureaucracy getting fired is called 'termination,' as in ontological erasure.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/it-s-no-accident-that-in-a-bureaucracy-getting-fired-is-called/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [Footnote: 79) The anchor is gigantic and must weigh a hundred tons, and -- delightfully -- it really is anchor-shaped, i.e. the same shape…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/footnote-79-the-anchor-is-gigantic-and-must-weigh-a-hundred-tons-and/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“The paradoxical intercourse of audience and celebrity. The suppressed awareness that the whole reason ordinary people found celebrity fascinating was that they were not,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/the-paradoxical-intercourse-of-audience-and-celebrity-the-suppressed/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“I am coming to see that the sensation of the worst nightmares, a sensation that can be felt asleep or awake, is identical to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/i-am-coming-to-see-that-the-sensation-of-the-worst-nightmares-a/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“He cranks the condo’s AC way down at night and still most mornings wakes up soaked, fetally curled, entombed in that kind of psychic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/he-cranks-the-condo-s-ac-way-down-at-night-and-still-most-mornings/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“To me, at least in retrospect, the really interesting question is why dullness proves to be such a powerful impediment to attention. Why we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/to-me-at-least-in-retrospect-the-really-interesting-question-is-why/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“If you’re subjected to enough great salesmen and salespitches and marketing concepts for long enough—like from your earliest Saturday-morning cartoons, let’s say—it is only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/if-you-re-subjected-to-enough-great-salesmen-and-salespitches-and/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“Why is the truth usually not just un- but anti-interesting?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/why-is-the-truth-usually-not-just-un-but-anti-interesting/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“She almost reminds the engineer of certain types in high school whom everyone adored because you sensed it made no difference to them whether…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/she-almost-reminds-the-engineer-of-certain-types-in-high-school-whom/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [To be, in a word, unborable… It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/to-be-in-a-word-unborable-it-is-the-key-to-modern-life-if-you-are/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“It is within your power to experience a crowded, loud, slow, consumer-hell-type situation as not only meaningful but sacred, on fire with the same…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/it-is-within-your-power-to-experience-a-crowded-loud-slow-consumer/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“The happy pleasure of the person alone, yes?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/the-happy-pleasure-of-the-person-alone-yes/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [There is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/there-is-such-a-thing-as-raw-unalloyed-agendaless-kindness/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) [Explore all 999 David Foster Wallace quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) ## More Responsibility quotes > [Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination-- devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues -- which a man…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-a-heinlein/social-responsibility-above-the-level-of-family-or-at-most-of-tribe/) [Robert A. Heinlein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-a-heinlein/) > [I can't believe that I'm sitting in meetings with Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Annette Bening. I want to take on that responsibility to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roger-ross-williams/i-can-t-believe-that-i-m-sitting-in-meetings-with-steven-spielberg/) [Roger Ross Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roger-ross-williams/) > [Humans are, as Sartre put it, 'condemned to be free'. To insist that science, or God, objectively defines moral values is to abandon our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kenan-malik/humans-are-as-sartre-put-it-condemned-to-be-free-to-insist-that/) [Kenan Malik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kenan-malik/) > [Our young Marines of today are courageous, willing to make sacrifices, and are marvelous team players. I am confident our Corps, and indeed our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-t-conway/our-young-marines-of-today-are-courageous-willing-to-make-sacrifices/) [James T. Conway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-t-conway/) > [Next to the assumption of power was the responsibility of relinquishing it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-disraeli/next-to-the-assumption-of-power-was-the-responsibility-of/) [Benjamin Disraeli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-disraeli/) > [I am a fighter and I am in that fight and I have to make sure that I share the responsibility with my players…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erik-ten-hag/i-am-a-fighter-and-i-am-in-that-fight-and-i-have-to-make-sure-that-i/) [Erik ten Hag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erik-ten-hag/) > [I think it's unhelpful to suggest that the task of evangelism is essentially the responsibility of ministers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-dever/i-think-it-s-unhelpful-to-suggest-that-the-task-of-evangelism-is/) [Mark Dever](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-dever/) > [During the last 17 years... I have been working at the restoration of a once exhausted hillside. Its scars are now healed over, though…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/during-the-last-17-years-i-have-been-working-at-the-restoration-of-a/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [I'm a strange mixture of my mother's curiosity; my father, who grew up the son of the manse in a Presbyterian family, who had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rupert-murdoch/i-m-a-strange-mixture-of-my-mother-s-curiosity-my-father-who-grew-up/) [Rupert Murdoch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rupert-murdoch/) > [I take the responsibility of playing another ethnicity very, very seriously, and I promise myself and those people that I will represent them with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cliff-curtis/i-take-the-responsibility-of-playing-another-ethnicity-very-very/) [Cliff Curtis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cliff-curtis/) > [I think accepting an instruction is part of a player's responsibility.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sam-allardyce/i-think-accepting-an-instruction-is-part-of-a-player-s-responsibility/) [Sam Allardyce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sam-allardyce/) > [No nation being under another nation can accept gifts, and kick at the responsibility attached to those gifts, imposed by the conquering nation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/no-nation-being-under-another-nation-can-accept-gifts-and-kick-at-the/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Politics is about power. It is about the power of the state. It is about the power of the state as applied to individuals,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-rudd/politics-is-about-power-it-is-about-the-power-of-the-state-it-is/) [Kevin Rudd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-rudd/) > [In a democratic nation, power must be linked with responsibility, and obliged to defend and justify itself within the framework of the general good.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/franklin-d-roosevelt/in-a-democratic-nation-power-must-be-linked-with-responsibility-and/) [Franklin D. Roosevelt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/franklin-d-roosevelt/) > [“The reason you have committees is that you have divided responsibilities,” Jobs said. “We don’t. At Apple you can figure out exactly who is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adam-lashinsky/the-reason-you-have-committees-is-that-you-have-divided/) [Adam Lashinsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adam-lashinsky/) [Browse all 11,295 Responsibility quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/responsibility/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "It's like a fugue of evaded responsibility.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "David Foster Wallace" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibility/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Responsibility" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibility/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7d/david-foster-wallace-161_responsibility_it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibili_682152.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7d/david-foster-wallace-161_responsibility_it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibili_682152.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7d/david-foster-wallace-161_responsibility_it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibili_682152.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It's like a fugue of evaded responsibility.” — David Foster Wallace", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "David Foster Wallace", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "It's like a fugue of evaded...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibility/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/it-s-like-a-fugue-of-evaded-responsibility/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```