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Top 20 William Finnegan Quotes (2025 Update)

William Finnegan Quote: “In a recent interview, he compared himself to surfers: “What are they doing this for? It’s just pure. You’re alone. That wave is so much bigger and stronger than you. You’re always outnumbered. They always can crush you. And yet you’re going to accept that and turn it into a little, brief, meaningless art form.”

1. “In a recent interview, he compared himself to surfers: “What are they doing this for? It’s just pure. You’re alone. That wave is so much bigger and stronger than you. You’re always outnumbered. They always can crush you. And yet you’re going to accept that and turn it into a little, brief, meaningless art form.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “By thirteen, I’d mostly stopped believing in God, but that was a new development and it left a hole in my world, a feeling that I’d been abandoned. The ocean was like an uncaring god, endlessly dangerous, power beyond measure.”

2. “By thirteen, I’d mostly stopped believing in God, but that was a new development and it left a hole in my world, a feeling that I’d been abandoned. The ocean was like an uncaring god, endlessly dangerous, power beyond measure.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “This is what I mean by quitting surfing. When you surf, as I then understood it, you live and breathe waves. You always know what the surf is doing. You cut school, lose jobs, lose girlfriends, if it’s good.”

3. “This is what I mean by quitting surfing. When you surf, as I then understood it, you live and breathe waves. You always know what the surf is doing. You cut school, lose jobs, lose girlfriends, if it’s good.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “I continued to doubt. But I was not afraid. I just didn’t want this to end.”

4. “I continued to doubt. But I was not afraid. I just didn’t want this to end.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “And I saw surfing that day – by Leslie Wong, among others – that made my chest hurt: long moments of grace under pressure that felt etched deep in my being: what I wanted, somehow, more than anything else. That night, while my family slept, I lay awake on the bamboo-framed couch, heart pounding with residual adrenaline, listening restlessly to the rain.”

5. “And I saw surfing that day – by Leslie Wong, among others – that made my chest hurt: long moments of grace under pressure that felt etched deep in my being: what I wanted, somehow, more than anything else. That night, while my family slept, I lay awake on the bamboo-framed couch, heart pounding with residual adrenaline, listening restlessly to the rain.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “Being adjacent to that much beauty – more than adjacent; immersed in, pierced by it – was the point. The physical risks were footnotes.”

6. “Being adjacent to that much beauty – more than adjacent; immersed in, pierced by it – was the point. The physical risks were footnotes.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “Back when I could get away with it, I subscribed to Norman Mailer’s view that exercise without excitement, without competition or danger or purpose, didn’t strengthen the body but simply wore it out. Swimming laps always seemed to me especially pointless. But I can’t get away with that attitude now. If I don’t swim, I will be a pear-shaped pillar of suet.”

7. “Back when I could get away with it, I subscribed to Norman Mailer’s view that exercise without excitement, without competition or danger or purpose, didn’t strengthen the body but simply wore it out. Swimming laps always seemed to me especially pointless. But I can’t get away with that attitude now. If I don’t swim, I will be a pear-shaped pillar of suet.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “The particulars of new places grabbed me and held me, the sweep of new coasts, cold, lovely, dawns. The world was incomprehensibly large, and there was still so much to see. Yes, I got sick sometimes of being an expatriate, always ignorant, on the outside of things, but I didn’t feel ready for domestic life, for seeing the same people, the same places, thinking more or less the same thoughts, each day. I liked surrendering to the onrush, the uncertainty, the serendipity of the road.”

8. “The particulars of new places grabbed me and held me, the sweep of new coasts, cold, lovely, dawns. The world was incomprehensibly large, and there was still so much to see. Yes, I got sick sometimes of being an expatriate, always ignorant, on the outside of things, but I didn’t feel ready for domestic life, for seeing the same people, the same places, thinking more or less the same thoughts, each day. I liked surrendering to the onrush, the uncertainty, the serendipity of the road.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “I had surfed a few spots, notably Honolua Bay, where the wave commanded such devotion that I could see renouncing all other ambition than to surf it, every time it broke, forever.”

9. “I had surfed a few spots, notably Honolua Bay, where the wave commanded such devotion that I could see renouncing all other ambition than to surf it, every time it broke, forever.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “Surfers have a perfection fetish. The perfect wave, etcetera. There is no such thing. Waves are not stationary objects in nature like roses or diamonds. They’re quick, violent events at the end of a long chain of storm action and ocean reaction. Even the most symmetrical breaks have quirks and a totally specific, local character, changing with every shift in tide and wind and swell.”

10. “Surfers have a perfection fetish. The perfect wave, etcetera. There is no such thing. Waves are not stationary objects in nature like roses or diamonds. They’re quick, violent events at the end of a long chain of storm action and ocean reaction. Even the most symmetrical breaks have quirks and a totally specific, local character, changing with every shift in tide and wind and swell.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “I felt the weight of unmapped worlds, unborn language.”

11. “I felt the weight of unmapped worlds, unborn language.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “I copied out a passage from Lord Jim: “We wander in our thousands over the face of the earth, the illustrious and the obscure, earning beyond the seas our fame, our money, or only a crust of bread; but it seems to me that for each of us going home must be like going to render an account.”

12. “I copied out a passage from Lord Jim: “We wander in our thousands over the face of the earth, the illustrious and the obscure, earning beyond the seas our fame, our money, or only a crust of bread; but it seems to me that for each of us going home must be like going to render an account.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “Our conversation changed. It usually had a busy, must-say-everything edge to it, even during the long, lazy days of waiting for waves on Tavarua. But out in the lineup, once the swells started pumping, large pools of awe seemed to collect around us, hushing us, or reducing us to code and murmurs, as though we were in church. There was too much to say, too much emotion, and therefore nothing to say.”

13. “Our conversation changed. It usually had a busy, must-say-everything edge to it, even during the long, lazy days of waiting for waves on Tavarua. But out in the lineup, once the swells started pumping, large pools of awe seemed to collect around us, hushing us, or reducing us to code and murmurs, as though we were in church. There was too much to say, too much emotion, and therefore nothing to say.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “It was, once again, a glorious wave, with hues in its depths so intense they felt like first editions – ocean colors never seen before, made solely for this wave, this moment, perhaps never to be seen again.”

14. “It was, once again, a glorious wave, with hues in its depths so intense they felt like first editions – ocean colors never seen before, made solely for this wave, this moment, perhaps never to be seen again.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “Being friends as in writing letters was so much easier than being friends as in living together.”

15. “Being friends as in writing letters was so much easier than being friends as in living together.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “Hands folded under my chin, I drifted. A bruise-colored cloud hung over Koko Head. A transistor radio twanged on a seawall where a Hawaiian family picnicked on the sand. The sun-warmed shallow water had a strange boiled-vegetable taste. The moment was immense, still, glittering, mundane. I tried to fix each of its parts in memory. I did not consider, even passingly, that I had a choice when it came to surfing. My enchantment would take me where it would.”

16. “Hands folded under my chin, I drifted. A bruise-colored cloud hung over Koko Head. A transistor radio twanged on a seawall where a Hawaiian family picnicked on the sand. The sun-warmed shallow water had a strange boiled-vegetable taste. The moment was immense, still, glittering, mundane. I tried to fix each of its parts in memory. I did not consider, even passingly, that I had a choice when it came to surfing. My enchantment would take me where it would.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “You have to hate how the world goes on.”

17. “You have to hate how the world goes on.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “I was a sunburnt pagan now. I felt privy to mysteries.”

18. “I was a sunburnt pagan now. I felt privy to mysteries.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “People who tried to start at an advanced age, meaning over fourteen, had, in my experience, almost no chance of becoming proficient, and usually suffered pain and sorrow before they quit.”

19. “People who tried to start at an advanced age, meaning over fourteen, had, in my experience, almost no chance of becoming proficient, and usually suffered pain and sorrow before they quit.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “I did not consider, even passingly, that I had a choice when it came to surfing. My enchantment would take me where it would.”

20. “I did not consider, even passingly, that I had a choice when it came to surfing. My enchantment would take me where it would.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “The particulars of new places grabbed me and held me, the sweep of new coasts, cold, lovely dawns. The world was incomprehensibly large, and there was still so much to see... I liked surrendering to the onrush, the uncertainty, the serendipity of the road. And I generally liked being a stranger, an observer, often surprised.”

21. “The particulars of new places grabbed me and held me, the sweep of new coasts, cold, lovely dawns. The world was incomprehensibly large, and there was still so much to see... I liked surrendering to the onrush, the uncertainty, the serendipity of the road. And I generally liked being a stranger, an observer, often surprised.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “Buzzy Trent, an old-time big-wave rider, allegedly said, “Big waves are not measured in feet, but in increments of fear.”

22. “Buzzy Trent, an old-time big-wave rider, allegedly said, “Big waves are not measured in feet, but in increments of fear.”

— William Finnegan

William Finnegan Quote: “I later spent a year studying Finnegans Wake with Norman O. Brown, an exercise in masturbatory obscurantism that Bryan would never have undertaken – and he had an eye for genre fiction, including westerns, that I lacked.”

23. “I later spent a year studying Finnegans Wake with Norman O. Brown, an exercise in masturbatory obscurantism that Bryan would never have undertaken – and he had an eye for genre fiction, including westerns, that I lacked.”

— William Finnegan

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