“Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" "I can't remember. Which?" "Do you know what those words mean?" "Not really." "An optimist is positive and hopeful. A pessimist is negative and cynical." "I'm an optimist." "Well, that's good, because there’s no irrefutable evidence. There’s nothing that could convince someone who doesn’t want to be convinced. But there is an abundance of clues that would give the wanting believer something to hold on to.”

American novelist

Jonathan Safran Foer is an American novelist and writer. He is associated with contemporary American fiction and has 239 quotes on the site. He is known for the novels Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and Here I Am, as well as the non-fiction works Eating Animals and We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast. He also teaches creative writing at New York University. His writing often moves between fiction and nonfiction, with attention to family, memory, and environmental concern.