“I' was the last word I was able to speak aloud, which is a terrible thing, but there it is, I would walk around the neighborhood saying, 'I I I I.' 'You want a cup of coffee, Thomas?''I.' 'And maybe something sweet?''I.' 'How about this weather?''I.' 'You look upset. Is anything wrong?' I wanted to say, 'Of course,' I wanted to ask, 'Is anything right?' I wanted to pull the thread, unravel the scarf of my silence and start again from the beginning, but instead I said 'I.' I know I'm not alone in this disease, you hear the old people in the street and some of them are moaning, 'Ay yay yay,' but some of them are clinging to their last word, 'I,' they're saying, because they're desperate, it's not a complaint, it's a prayer, and then I lost 'I' and my silence was complete.”

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About Jonathan Safran Foer

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.

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Books by Jonathan Safran Foer

Everything Is Illuminated

2003

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

2006

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Here I Am

2017

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Eating animals

2009

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