Jonathan Lethem Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

Apparently Brooklyn needn't always push itself to be something else, something conscious and anxious, something pointed toward Manhattan.... Brooklyn might sometimes also be pleased, as here on Flatbush, to be its grubby, enduring self.

Jonathan Lethem
Some people have things written all over their faces; the big guy had a couple of words misspelled in crayon on his.

Jonathan Lethem
There were days when no kid came out of his house without looking around. The week after Halloween had a quality both hungover and ominous, the light pitched, the sky smashed against the rooftops.

Jonathan Lethem
It wasn't for children, seventh grade. You could read the stress of even entering the building in the postures of the teachers, the security guards. Nobody could relax in such a racial and hormonal disaster area.

Jonathan Lethem
My heart, to put it more simply, got nostalgic for the present. Always a bad sign.

Jonathan Lethem
Someday I would change my name to Shut Up and save everybody a lot of time.

Jonathan Lethem
Listen to me. I'm shy. I'm not stupid. I can't meet people's eyes. I don't know if you understand what that's like. There's a whole world going on around me, I'm aware of that. It's not because I don't want to look at you, Lucinda. It's that I don't want to be seen.

Jonathan Lethem
I jotted the name down mentally on that tattered notepad I call a memory. The pen skipped.

Jonathan Lethem
Tourette's is just one big lifetime of tag, really. The world (or my brain — same thing) appoints me it, again and again. So I tag back. Can it do otherwise? If you've ever been it you know the answer.

Jonathan Lethem