David Foster Wallace Quotes

Although my stories are all very different on the surface, I like to write stories about characters struggling with big problems. I'm always reminded, no matter how different from me one of my characters is from me on the surface, how we're all pretty much the same underneath.

I think people found out I'm just like anybody else. I've got problems, too.

Everyone feels like an underdog, at some point in their life. Even the best-looking people and the most athletic probably have a phase in their life - a year or two - where they're awkward or they have braces.

People are people, and they want to know about their own experiences.

I'm always attracted to the vulnerable character more than I am the superhero.

Imperfection is relatable.

It's not that easy to find someone I can relate too. I'm tough to crack because I'm shy.

I chose to present myself as one who comes from among the people, and I can be touched by their pain because I have my own.

You say to yourself: 'What could people, in all these countries, find in my books?' and yet I think we're all the same, anywhere. Everybody is a hero or a dramatic person in their own story if you just know where to look.

I had discovered that I'm much less special than I thought I am. So whatever I find true for myself, other people might also relate to.

The thing that inspires me most is empathizing with people's flaws and seeing how they deal with them. That sort of connection you feel with someone when you realize that maybe even the negative things that they've said or done are because of insecurities or injuries they've endured.

I also have a different, softer side, and I want for people to hear that.

I've always been open about my life not because my story is unique, but because it isn't.

Flaws make us all human, and you're rooting for characters because of those flaws. It's ageless if you're interested in relationships and the way people can or can't relate to each other.

I think that just because the show is titled 'Awkward Black Girl' and it is a predominantly black cast doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to relate to these people. We're all human beings. We all essentially go through the same things when it comes down to it, so I don't I think that should limit who watches it.

Some of the best actors think they're terrible; that's what keeps you connected to a vulnerability that makes it possible for people to empathize with you.

I know I don't mind sharing my defects, my deficiencies, partly in the hope that someone will hear it and know that they're not alone.

Everyone has those insecurities, everyone doubts themselves but it's how we handle that as humans and as people and how we support one another and how we really embrace the things that make us unique.

I'm writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.

I feel my situation is no different from anybody else's experiences.

Are people drawn to each other because of the stories they carry inside? At the library I couldn’t help but notice which patrons checked out the same books. They appeared to have nothing in common, but who could tell what a person was truly made of? The unknown, the riddle, the deepest truth. I noticed them all: the ones who’d lost their way, the ones who’d lived their lives in ashes, the ones who had to prove themselves, the ones who, like me, had lost the ability to feel.

We're all going through our problems, but we all have the same insecurities and we all have the same abilities and we all need each other.

What I write is emotionally honest and truthful as the human experience can be, to make people feel less alone, or at least that's the hope.

One of the things we love about Po [Kung Fu Panda] is that he's vulnerable. He's someone that we can all identify with because he has those insecurities. He's an outsider feeling guy.

Here I am an old man in a long nightgown making muffled noises at people who may be no worse than I am.