"Love is about bottomless empathy, born out of the heart's revelation that another person is every bit as real as you are. And this is why love, as I understand it, is always specific. Trying to love all of humanity may be a worthy endeavor, but, in a funny way, it keeps the focus on the self, on the self's own moral or spiritual well-being. Whereas, to love a specific person, and to identify with his or her struggles and joys as if they were your own, you have to surrender some of your self."
Franzen understand love to be a selfless act. It's a willingness to decrease how important you view yourself in order to compensate for how equally valid and important the lives of the people are you are. In order to love someone well, you must consider their perspective for its own sake, without trying to fulfill some nobility within yourself.
"The problem with making a virtual world of oneself is akin to the problem with projecting ourselves into a cyberworld: there is no end of virtual spaces in which to seek stimulation, but their very endlessness, the perpetual stimulation without satisfaction, becomes imprisoning."
As a contemporary author, Franzen is concerned with the effects of technology upon social interactions. He believes that the internet is a dangerous place in which to search for an identity or validation because it never ends. There is always another opinion to consult, another forum to try. Lost in the void of infinite electronic space, the individual becomes more and more alone, accomplishing the opposite of the goal.
"My conception of the novel is that it ought to be a personal struggle, a direct and total engagement with the author's story of his or her own life."
Franzen possesses a personal philosophy concerning the function of a novel in an author's life. He states the belief that a novel must encompass the author's life. Regardless of the topic, subject, or style, the novel must accurately reflect the summation of the author's experiences. This is an exhaustive challenge.
"Can a better kind of fiction save the world? There's always some tiny hope (strange things do happen), but the answer is almost certainly no, it can't. There is some reasonable chance, however, that it could save your soul. If you're unhappy about the hatred that's been unleashed in your heart, you might try imagining what it's like to be the person who hates you; you might consider the possibility that you are, in fact, the Evil One yourself."
In speaking of the narcissistic bent of people today, Franzen argues that the individual possesses the power to change their own circumstances via attitude. A story that answers all the right questions will not transform an entire population, although Franzen asserts his modest hope in such matters. Rather, a personal, creative narrative is required. The individual can exercise imagination to consider where they fit in a more broad story and, by this introspective exercise, gain the objectivity necessary to compel change.
