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" As I've grown older, I've grown more convinced there's nothing that shouldn't be talked about. If we think we're protecting each other, we're not. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

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" We've made science experiments of ourselves and our children. "

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" I want to talk about God in a literary way. But I think I would have a very hard time praying to God. "

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" The French, who love their dogs, sometimes eat their horses. The Spanish, who love their horses, sometimes eat their cows. The Indians, who love their cows, sometimes eat their dogs. "

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" What the world does not need is a Haggadah that pats itself on the back. It needs a Haggadah that gets out of the way, that starts a conversation and gets out of the way. "

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" Just about every children's book in my local bookstore has an animal for its hero. But then, only a few feet away in the cookbook section, just about every cookbook includes recipes for cooking animals. Is there a more illuminating illustration of our paradoxical relationship with the nonhuman world? "

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" The purpose of the Seder to my mind is to inspire conversations with your family about the human drama and hopefully transmit values to the next generation. I've always felt like this could be better. "

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" People always ask what a book is about, as if it has to be about something. I don't want to write books that lend themselves to that sort of description. My books are more a kind of breaking-down. "

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" We eat as sons and daughters, as families, as communities, as generations, as nations, and increasingly as a globe. We can't stop our eating from radiating influence even if we want to. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" The question, I've come to think, is not what inspires one to change, but what inspires one to remain changed. "

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" There are two kinds of sculptures. There's the kind that subtracts: Michelangelo starts with a block of marble and chips away. And then there is the kind that adds, building with clay, piling it on. The way I write novels is to keep piling on and piling on and piling on. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" In America right now, we use words like 'smart' to talk about bombs. American rhetoric is grounded in ideas of capital-G Good, capital-E Evil, and it's very clear who is on which side. But in a book you can do just the opposite. You can use all lower-case words. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" Living on a planet of fixed size requires compromise, and while we are the only party capable of negotiating, we are not the only party at the table. We've never claimed more, and we've never had less. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" These little daily choices that we're so used to thinking are irrelevant are the most important thing we do all day long. "

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" Why do I write? It's not that I want people to think I am smart, or even that I am a good writer. I write because I want to end my loneliness. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" There is an overabundance of rational reasons to say no to factory-farmed meat: It is the No. 1 cause of global warming, it systematically forces tens of billions of animals to suffer in ways that would be illegal if they were dogs, it is a decisive factor in the development of swine and avian flus, and so on. "

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" Kids are a great analogy. You want your kids to grow up, and you don't want your kids to grow up. You want your kids to become independent of you, but it's also a parent's worst nightmare: That they won't need you. It's like the real tragedy of parenting. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" It's a good rule of thumb, it seems to me: if you're not allowed to see where something comes from, don't put it in your mouth. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" There is a glaring reason that the necessary total ban on nontherapeutic use of antibiotics hasn't happened: The factory farm industry, allied with the pharmaceutical industry, has more power than public-health professionals. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" I'm interested in the kind of religion that makes life harder. I'm not so interested in the comforting kind of religion. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" I always write out of a need to read something, rather than a need to write something. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" Literature has drawn a funny perimeter that other art forms haven't. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" When we talk about protecting our right to have guns, we are talking about protecting our right to shoot bullets. So what is it that's so important to shoot at? "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" To remember my values, I need to lose certain tastes and find other handles for the memories that they once helped me carry. "

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" Fiction works when it makes a reader feel something strongly. "

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" Why does watching a dog be a dog fill one with happiness? "

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" It's not worth getting too excited about thinking about the larger picture. The larger picture doesn't come into focus for an awfully long time. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" We say no to lots of things that would please us. I would like to punch people every now and then, but I don't. I would like to have something for free rather than pay for it. I would like to skip to the front of the line... I don't mean to brush aside the taste of meat, which is a powerful attraction. But its power is not without limit. "

Jonathan Safran Foer

" It's rarely talked about, but hunting for sport is just about as vile as we humans get. "

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" The best books are the ones that ask the most questions. "

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" When it comes to meat, change is almost always cast as an absolute. You are a vegetarian or you are not. "

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