“Mr. Lisbon had the feeling that he didn't know who she was, that children were only strangers you agreed to live with.” — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
The humming of my parents' voices from behind my bedroom wall, which throughout my childhood had filled me with a sense of… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“She wasn't all that interested, as a reader, in the reader. She was still partial to that increasingly eclipsed entity: the writer.… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
They were bound for college, husbands, child-rearing, unhappiness only dimly perceived- bound, in other words, for life. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
She was a large, disordered woman, like a child's drawing that didn't stay within the lines. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Children learn to speak Male or Female the way they learn to speak English or French. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“…hearts wrung with anguish, the anguish of having children, a vulnerability as astonishing as the capacity for love that parenthood brings.” — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“There is no evidence against genetic determinism more persuasive than the children of the rich.” — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“If you weren't a lucky child, you didn't know you weren't lucky until you got older. And then it was all you… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
I have a good memory for early life. My visual memory is good about childhood and adolescence, and less good in the… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“Dr. Phil never talked about Smyrna and left the room if anyone did. He never mentioned his murdered sons and daughters. Maybe… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
“Shit. What have kids got to be worried about now? If they want trouble, they should go live in Bangladesh.” — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
It was something every child knew how to do, maintain a direct and full connection with the world. Somehow you forgot about… — 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
“Only the Lisbon house remained dark, a tunnel, an emptiness, past our smoke and flames.” — 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
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
