A few quotes from Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom".

p. 41

Based on her inability to recall her state of consciousness in her first three years at college, the autobiographer suspects she simply didn't have a state of consciousness. She had the sensation of being awake but in fact she must have been sleepwalking. Otherwise it's hard to understand how, to take one example, she became intense best friends with a disturbed girl who was basically her stalker.

p. 132

Walter himself had great compassion for people attempting to be funny, and laughed loudly to reward them for their effort, and yet he instantly knew he wanted to be friends with the tall unsmiling person. He hoped this was his roommate, and it was.

p. 260

Jonathan's father was the founder and luminary president of a think tank devoted to advocating the unilateral exercise of American military supremacy to make the world freer and safer, especially for America and Israel.

p. 445

The personality susceptible to the dream of limitless freedom is a personality also prone, should the dream ever sour, to misanthropy and rage.