A Quote by David Foster Wallace

Whatever you get paid attention for is never what you think is most important about yourself. — © David Foster Wallace
Whatever you get paid attention for is never what you think is most important about yourself.
Arthur Miller said one of my favorite lines ever, that he had the mother say to her two sons about a very unstable father in Death of a Salesman. She said, "Attention must be paid." It's one of the most resonant lines that I think he ever wrote, and I think attention must be paid to the truth.
I kinda halfway paid attention to politics during my early years, but the older you get, the more you realize it's very important to pay attention to who gets elected. They can ruin the country.
I don't say he's a great man. Willie Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.
People who wear their religion on their sleeves talk a lot about going to Sunday school, reading the Bible, and doing good works. And I suppose there's no harm in that. But if I'd gone to the trouble to pull all this together ... and people never paid any attention to it, never bothered to try to find out how the world worked, then I think I'd get annoyed.
I really can't complain about actresses who get paid to be dumb. Most of us can't get paid to be smart.
I never heard one word in Pixar about, 'Will kids get this?' I don't think it's important that they get everything. I think that it's important that they get engaged, interested.
I don't think music is my job - I don't think about it that way, because I don't really get paid. There's no paycheck at the end; it's more of a 'whatever is left over' kind of situation.
Knowing yourself, and learning to love yourself as you are, is the beginning of beauty. I think the most important thing is to show off what's most beautiful about you and to hide what's less beautiful.
There should be more attention paid to scientific research in the ecology area, and I think that such attention to proper environmental concerns would make the public feel much better about it.
Actually, I never really thought I would be a model. I never knew a lot about fashion and magazines, and I never paid attention to it. I was a young girl, though.
Sometimes during the day, I consciously focus on some ordinary object and allow myself a momentary "paying-attention." This paying-attention gives meaning to my life. I don't know who it was, but someone said that careful attention paid to anything is a window into the universe. Pausing to think this way, even for a brief moment, is very important. It gives quality to my day.
I realized that nobody paid attention to eyebrows. In Romania, it was the norm. I thought, 'This is Hollywood. We work with the most incredible, beautiful models and actors and this is important.'
All your life you've paid attention to your experiences, but never to yourself.
I've always paid attention to religion because I grew up in a religious background, but I've never felt a part of any of them. I think there's something to be drawn from most of them - other than goat sacrificing.
You have to realize WWE's contract. They're not getting paid from advertising money. USA makes that money. WWE gets paid by USA, they get paid a lot of money, and the money increases every year. Ratings aren't the most important thing to them.
I think what I've tried to do is make the world a better place. I think that's what's really important. Nobody remembers who sold the most togas in Rome. In terms of legacy, people remember the great villains more than they remember the great heroes. So I think how you feel about yourself is the most significant question. What do you say about yourself when you put your head on the pillow? Are you really proud of what you're doing and the way you're doing it? I think it's really a fundamental question.
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