I was aware that you weren't supposed to write about suburbia, that it was undignified in some way, the subject matter not… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
The more she thought about it, the more Madeleine understood that extreme solitude didn't just describe the way she was feeling about… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
The ideas for my books come about in two ways. There can be an intellectual idea that seems to be the reason… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
The only way we know it's true is that we both dreamed it. That's what reality is. It's a dream everyone has… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
The perishable nature of love is what gives love its profound importance in our lives. If it were endless, if it were… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
If love were endless, if it were on tap, it wouldn't hit us the way it does. And we certainly wouldn't write… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
If I write a character, instead of looking from the outside, like maybe a journalist would, trying to describe them physically and… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
I studied English literature in the honors program, which means that you had to take courses in various centuries. You had to… — 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
I live my own life and nurse my own wounds. It's not the best way to live. But it's the way I… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
I was directed because I knew I wanted to be a novelist, but I didn't have a very good job or a… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, the way it made your mind active and dreamy, and how you ended up… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
We value love not because it's stronger than death but because it's weaker. Say what you want about love: death will finish… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
I mean, when I got to Brown, the place was riven, because you had older professors who were basically new critics and… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
If you think of even Tolstoy or a book like 'Anna Karenina,' you go from character to character, and each section is… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
I tell my students that when you write, you should pretend you’re writing the best letter you ever wrote to the smartest… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
I think there's a real connection between acting and writing novels because the way I write characters has a little bit to… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Planning is for the world's great cities, for Paris, London, and Rome, for cities dedicated, at some level, to culture. Detroit, on… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
My family suffered. My hair turned up in every corner, every drawer, every meal. Even in the rice puddings Tessie made, covering… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
That's the way I will write characters, put a fair amount of myself in them, and then everyone else who was like… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Added to their loveliness was a new mysterious suffering, perfectly silent, visible in the blue puffiness beneath their eyes or the way… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Well, marriage doesn't function in the way it used to in terms of deciding our fate, but it's in our heads, and… — 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
