“Just when she’d got her head on straight, her body started falling apart.” — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
In the end, it wasn't death that surprised her but the stubbornness of life. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
She understood that her heart operated on its own instructions, that she had no control over it or, indeed, anything else. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
We couldn't imagine the emptiness of a creature who put a razor to her wrists and opened her veins, the emptiness and… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Regret, already sogging me down, burst its dam. It seeped into my legs, it pooled in my heart. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“She had just started living like a grown-up and she'd never felt more vulnerable, frightened or confused in her life.” — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“She kept her face to the floor, moving in her personal oblivion, her sunflower eyes fixed on the predicament of her life… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“Listening to Leonard, Madeleine felt impoverished by her happy childhood. She never wondered why she acted the way she did, or what… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
We knew that Cecilia had killed herself because she was a misfit, because the beyond called to her, and we knew that… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
It was as if, before she'd met him, her blood had circulated grayly around her body, and now ir was all oxygenated… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“Desdemona, mourning her parents, was still imprisoned by the past. And so she stood on the mountain, looking down at the emancipated… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Where else would she feel more comfortable than in this subterranean realm where people wrote down what they couldn't say, where they… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before, and the pleasure you get from writing -… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“It was as if her own heart had been surgically removed from her body and was being kept at a remote location,… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Words, words, word. Once, I had the gift. I could make love out of words as a potter makes cups of clay.… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
When I think back about my immediate reaction to that redheads girl, it seems to spring from an appreciation of natural beauty.… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Though at this moment she felt abused, abandoned, and ashamed of herself, Madeleine knew that she was still young, that she had… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“Only the Lisbon house remained dark, a tunnel, an emptiness, past our smoke and flames.” — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
“She had just started living like a grown-up and she'd never felt more vulnerable, frightened or confused in her life.” — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
It's often said that a traumatic experience early in life marks a person forever, pulls her out of line, saying, "Stay there. Don't move. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
“The window was still open,” Mr Lisbon said. “I don’t think we’d ever remembered to shut it. It was all clear to me. I… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
I was aware that you weren't supposed to write about suburbia, that it was undignified in some way, the subject matter not momentous enough.… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
“Dr. Armonson stitched up her wrist wounds. Within five minutes of the transfusion he declared her out of danger. Chucking her under the chin,… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
“I don't approve of women driving, mind you. And now they get to vote!" He grumbled to himself. "Remember that play we saw ("The… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
I know that attaching memories to books may be going out of the world, but while it lasts, it's a strong record of your… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
I spend most of every day writing. I like to write every day if I can. I don't start extremely early. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
We knew that Cecilia had killed herself because she was a misfit, because the beyond called to her, and we knew that her sisters,… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
You can tell when something's not moving forward anymore. When the doubts you have about it don't go away. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
Normality wasn't normal. It couldn't be. If normality were normal, everybody could leave it alone. They could sit back and let normality manifest itself. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share
