The Astors and the Vanderbilts, their pleasure domes and money: she was sick of it. Sick of envying, sick of herself. She didn't understand antiques or architecture, she couldn't draw like Sylvia, she didn't read like Ted, she had few interests and no expertise. A paucity for love was the only true thing she'd ever had. Jonathan Franzen
About This Quote

People are often envious of those who have more money than they do, but it doesn't mean that they are miserable with their lot in life. They are just happy with how they have arranged their current life. What she is describing is envy. Envy is the only true thing she’s ever had which means that she doesn’t desire anything else.

Source: The Corrections

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More Quotes By Jonathan Franzen
  1. Fiction is a solution, the best solution, to the problem of existential solitude.
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  3. Every good writer I know needs to go into some deep, quiet place to do work that is fully imagined. And what the Internet brings is lots of vulgar data. It is the antithesis of the imagination. It leaves nothing to the imagination.
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