EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE - JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 324

I cried some more. I wanted to tell her all of the lies that I'd told her. And then I wanted her to tell me that it was OK, because sometimes you have to do something bad to do something good. And then I wanted to tell her about the phone. And then I wanted her to tell me that Dad still would have been proud of me. 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 316

I invented a book that listed every word in every language. It wouldn't be a very useful book, but you could hold it and know that everything you could possibly say was in your hands.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 314

I thought about waking her.But it was unnecessary.There would be other nights.And how can you say I love you to someone you love?I rolled onto my side and fell asleep next to her.Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar.It's always necessary.I love you.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 309

I think about all of the things I've done, Oskar.    And all of the things I didn't do.    The mistakes I've made are dead to me.    But I can't take back the thinks I never did. 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 290

Maybe it's true that you can use up all of your tears. Maybe Grandma's right about that. It was nice to think about, because what I wanted was to be empty.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 257

"If I could know how he died, exactly how he died, I wouldn't have to invent him dying inside an elevator that was stuck between floors, which happened to some people, and I woulnd't have to imagine him trying to crawl down the outside of the building... There were so many different ways to die, and I just need to know which was his." 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 256

Maybe he didn't say he loved me because he loved me. But that wasn't a good enough explanation. I said, "I need to know how he died."     He flipped back and pointed at, "Why?"     "So I can stop inventing how he died. I'm always inventing."     He flipped back and pointed at, "I'm sorry."     "I found a bunch of videos on the Internet of bodies falling. They were on a Portuguese site, where there was all sorts of stuff they wern't showing here, even thoug it happened here. Whenever I want to try to learn about how Dad died, I have to go to a translator program and find out how to say things in different languages, like 'September,' which is 'Wrzesien,' or 'people jumping from burning buildings,' which is 'Menschen, die aus brennenden Gebäuden springen.' Then I Google those words. It makes me incredibly angry that people all over the world can know things that I can't because it happened here, and happened to me, so shouldn't it be mine?

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 254

" I wouldn't make you go down," Mr. Black said. "We could spend the afternoon up here." "I'm awkward," she said. "So am I," Mr. Black said. "I'm not very good company. I just told you everything I know." "I'm terrible company," Mr. Black said, although that wasn't true. "Ask him," he said, pointing at me. "It's true," I said, "he sucks." "You can tell me about this building all afternoon. That would be marvelous. That's how I want to spend my time." "I don't even have any lipstick." "Neither do I." She let out a laugh, and then she put her hand over her mouth, like she was angry at herself for forgetting her sadness. 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 252

"When he died, I came back up here. It's silly." "No," I said. "It isn't." "I wasn't looking for him. I'm not a girl. But it gave me the same feeling that I'd had when it was daytime and I was looking for his light. I knew it was there, i just couldn't see it."

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 252

"He was always coming up with wonderful, crazy ideas. A bit like you," she said to me, which gave me heavy boots, because why couldn't I remind people of me?

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 250

"I know about this building because I love this building." That gave me heavy boots, because it reminded me of the lock that I still hadn't found, and how until I found it, I didn't love Dad enough.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 245

Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped. 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 244

I squeezed Mr. Black's hand, and I couldn't stop inventing: the elevator cables snapping, the elevator falling, a trampoline at the bottom, us shooting back up, the roof opening like a cereal box, us flying toward parts of the universe that not even Stephen Hawking was sure about...

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 243

That made me crack up, but only me. 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 239

I asked him did he really love New York or was he just wearing the shirt. He smiled, like he was nervous. I could tell he didn't understand, which made me feel guilty for speaking English, for some reason. I pointed at his shirt. "Do? You? Really? Love? New York?" He said, "New York?" I said, "Your. Shirt." He looked at his shirt. I pointed at the N and said "New," and the Y and said "York." He looked confused, or embarrassed, or surprised, or maybe even mad. I couldn't tell what he was feeling, because I couldn't speak the language of his feelings. "I not know was New York. In Chinese, ny mean 'you.' Thought was 'I love you.'" It was then that I noticed the "I<3NY" poster on the wall, and the "I<3NY" flag over the door, and the "I<3NY" dishtowels, and the "I<3NY" lunchbox on the kitchen table. I asked him, "Well, then why do you love everybody so much?"

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 232

When we got to the grave and they lowered the empty coffin, you let out a noise like an animal.    I had never heard anything like it.    You were a wounded animal.    The noise is still in my ears.    It was what I had spent forty years looking for, what I wanted my life and life story to be.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 232

But I knew the truth, and that's why I was so sad.Every moment before this one depends on this one.Everything in the history of the world can be proven wrong in one moment.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 230

I lowered the volume until it was silent.The same pictures over and over.Planes going into buildings.Bodies falling.People waving shirts out of high windows.Planes going into buildings.People covered in gray dust.Bodies falling.Buildings falling.Planes going into buildings.Planes going into buildings.Building falling.People waving shirts out of high windows.Bodies falling.Planes going into buildings. 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 226

What happened to your arm?I looked at my arm.    It was bleeding through my shirt.    Had I fallen and not noticed?    Had I been scratching it?    That was when I knew that I knew.