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"I wrote two plotted books, got some of the fundamentals of storytelling down, then... it's sort of like taking the training wheels off, trying to write a book that's fun in the same way without relying on quite such mechanical or external beats."
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"Thanks to bad graphic design, some readers love only the electronic version of some books."

"Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all."

"I don't believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books."

"The oldest books are only just out to those who have not read them."

"A book, too, can be a star 'explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly."
Explore more quotes by Jonathan Franzen

"When I finally gave up any hope of doing anything representative of the American family, I actually seemed to have tapped into other people's weirdness in that way."

"I look at my father, who was in many ways an unhappy person, but who, not long before he got sick, said that the greatest source of satisfaction in his life had been going to work in the company of other workers."

"I was unwise enough to actually mention this in public a few times, and in fact to point out that there were two versions of the book now. One of them had somebody else's name on the cover, one had my name on the cover."

"I was a late child from my parents, so I grew up surrounded by people a lot older than me. I think even when I was 21, I felt like I was a 70-year-old man."

"It's not surprising to see in my own work, looking back, and in the work of some of my peers, an attention to family. It's nice to write a book that does tend toward significance and meaning, and where else are you sure of finding it?"

"It seems to me self-evident that if you have a life, things happen in it, and certain things do change; certain things end. People you know die."

"I was about 13, in some ways, when I wrote the first book. Approximately 18 when I wrote the second."
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