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Fence post Quote by Jonathan Safran Foer

“Brod's life was a slow realization that the world was not for her, and that for whatever reason, she would never be happy and honest at the same time. She felt as if she were brimming, always producing and hoarding more love inside of her. But there was no release. Table, ivory, elephant charm…” quote by Jonathan Safran Foer
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““Brod's life was a slow realization that the world was not for her, and that for whatever reason, she would never be happy and honest at the same time. She felt as if she were brimming, always producing and hoarding more love inside of her. But there was no release. Table, ivory, elephant charm, rainbow, onion, hairdo, mollusk, Shabbos, violence, cuticle, melodrama, ditch, honey, doily...None of it moved her. She addressed her world honestly, searching for something deserving of the volumes of love she knew she had within her, but to each she would have to say, I don't love you. Bark-brown fence post: I don't love you. Poem too long: I don't love you. Lunch in a bowl: I don't love you. Physics, the idea of you, the laws of you: I don't love you. Nothing felt like anything more than what it actually was. Everything was just a thing, mired completely in its thingness. If we were to open a random page in her journal- which she must have kept and kept with her at all times, not fearing that it would be lost, or discovered and read, but that she would one day stumble upon that thing which was finally worth writing about and remembering, only to find that she had no place to write it- we would find some rendering of the following sentiment: I am not in love.””

Jonathan Safran Foer

About This Quote

Source Novel: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, 2005

The narrator feels incapable of loving fully, seeing love as a burden that cannot be expressed or released.

In simple terms: Inability to love despite abundance.

Key Takeaway

Accept limits of emotional capacity.

Themes

love self-awareness existential angst

Mood

introspective somber

Type

literary philosophical

When to use this quote

  • personal journaling
  • therapy
  • creative writing

Key Concepts

psychology existentialism

Questions to Reflect On

  • What prevents you from fully loving?
  • Can love be both abundant and unexpressed?
A Different Perspective

Love may be constrained by personal history.

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