Skip to content

Life Quote by Jonathan Lethem

“This was the time when all we could talk about was sentences, sentences—nothing else stirred us. Whatever happened in those days, whatever befell our regard, Clea and I couldn’t rest until it had been converted into what we told ourselves were astonishingly unprecedented and charming sentences…” quote by Jonathan Lethem
Download Open image
““This was the time when all we could talk about was sentences, sentences—nothing else stirred us. Whatever happened in those days, whatever befell our regard, Clea and I couldn’t rest until it had been converted into what we told ourselves were astonishingly unprecedented and charming sentences: “Esther’s cleavage is something to be noticed” or “You can’t have a contemporary prison without contemporary furniture” or “I envision an art which will make criticism itself seem like a cognitive symptom, one which its sufferers define to themselves as taste but is in fact nothing of the sort” or “I said I want my eggs scrambled not destroyed.” At the explosion of such a sequence from our green young lips, we’d rashly scribble it on the wall of our apartment with a filthy wax pencil, or type it twenty-five times on the same sheet of paper and then photocopy the paper twenty-five times and then slice each page into twenty-five slices on the paper cutter in the photocopy shop and then scatter the resultant six hundred and twenty-five slips of paper throughout the streets of our city, fortunes without cookies.””

Jonathan Lethem

About This Quote

Source Novel: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, 2003

The passage captures a youthful obsession with language, turning mundane observations into elaborate, stylized sentences that become a form of self‑expression and rebellion.

In simple terms: Young writers obsess over clever phrasing to stand out.

Key Takeaway

Embrace authentic voice over forced cleverness.

Themes

creativity language rebellion identity youth

Mood

playful reflective ironic

Type

literary personal experimental

When to use this quote

  • college dorm conversations
  • writing workshops
  • street art
  • personal journals
  • performance art

Key Concepts

postmodernism self‑expression literary play social critique

Questions to Reflect On

  • How does language shape identity?
  • When does cleverness become pretentious?
A Different Perspective

The focus on style may obscure genuine meaning or alienate readers.

3.7 out of 5 (7 ratings)

More by Jonathan Lethem

Explore all 241 Jonathan Lethem quotes

More Life quotes

Browse all 265,682 Life quotes