Meg Wolitzer - The Interestings (2013)

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Twitter," said Manny, waving his hand. "You know what that is? Termites with microphones.

Meg Wolitzer
But this post-college world felt different from everything that had come before it; art was still central, but now everyone had to think about making a living too, and they did so with a kind of scorn for money except as it allowed them to live the way they wanted to live.

Meg Wolitzer
The child who was happy with herself meant the parents had won the jackpot.

Meg Wolitzer
After a certain age, you felt a need not to be alone. It grew stronger, like a radio frequency, until finally it was so powerful that you were forced to do something about it.

Meg Wolitzer
But clearly life took people and shook them around until finally they were unrecognizable even to those who had once known them well. Still, there was power in once having known someone.

Meg Wolitzer
I always thought it was the saddest and most devastating ending. How you could have these enormous dreams that never get met. How without knowing it you could just make yourself smaller over time. I don't want that to happen to me.

Meg Wolitzer
But, she knew, you didn't have to marry your soulmate, and you didn't even have to marry an Interesting. You didn't always need to be the dazzler, the firecracker, the one who cracked everyone up, or made everyone want to sleep with you, or be the one who wrote and starred in the play that got the standing ovation. You could cease to be obsessed with the idea of being interesting.

Meg Wolitzer
And specialness - everyone wants it. But Jesus, is it the most essential thing there is? Most people aren't talented. So what are they supposed to do - kill themselves?

Meg Wolitzer
You had only one chance for a signature in life, but most people left no impression.

Meg Wolitzer
The only option for a creative person was constant motion—a lifetime of busy whirligigging in a generally forward direction, until you couldn't do it any longer.

Meg Wolitzer
Part of the beauty of love was that you didn't need to explain it to anyone else. You could refuse to explain. With love, apparently you didn't necessarily feel the need to explain anything at all.

Meg Wolitzer
Just the act of sleeping beside someone you liked to be with. Maybe that was love.

Meg Wolitzer
Wasn't the whole point of being an artist, or at least part of it, that you didn't have to wear a tie?

Meg Wolitzer
We are all here, on this earth for only one go around. And everyone thinks their purpose is to just find their passion. But perhaps our purpose is to find what other people need.

Meg Wolitzer