Jeffrey Eugenides

“Only the Lisbon house remained dark, a tunnel, an emptiness, past our smoke and flames.”

— Jeffrey Eugenides

“She had just started living like a grown-up and she'd never felt more vulnerable, frightened or confused in her life.”

— Jeffrey Eugenides

It's often said that a traumatic experience early in life marks a person forever, pulls her out of line, saying, "Stay there.…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

“Adolescents tend to seek love where they can find it.”

— Jeffrey Eugenides

“The window was still open,” Mr Lisbon said. “I don’t think we’d ever remembered to shut it. It was all clear to…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

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

“Dr. Armonson stitched up her wrist wounds. Within five minutes of the transfusion he declared her out of danger. Chucking her under…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

“I don't approve of women driving, mind you. And now they get to vote!" He grumbled to himself. "Remember that play we…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

“Her face was calm, but inside she was tense.”

— Jeffrey Eugenides

I know that attaching memories to books may be going out of the world, but while it lasts, it's a strong record…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

I spend most of every day writing. I like to write every day if I can. I don't start extremely early.

— Jeffrey Eugenides

Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling.

— Jeffrey Eugenides

We knew that Cecilia had killed herself because she was a misfit, because the beyond called to her, and we knew that…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

You can tell when something's not moving forward anymore. When the doubts you have about it don't go away.

— Jeffrey Eugenides

Normality wasn't normal. It couldn't be. If normality were normal, everybody could leave it alone. They could sit back and let normality…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

“And he rose, brontosaurus-like, to his place among the treetops.”

— Jeffrey Eugenides

Historical fact: People stopped being people in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

Detroit's a great music town. If your interaction with it was mainly musical, I'm sure you have a good opinion of the…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

Pregnancy humbles husbands. After an initial rush of male pride they quickly recognise the minor role that nature had assigned them in…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

The Statue of Liberty's gender changed nothing. It was the same here as anywhere: men and their wars.

— Jeffrey Eugenides

“We all received invitations, made by hand from construction paper, with balloons containing our names in Magic Marker. Our amazement at being…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

“This was a characteroloical prelude, but it wasn’t chemical or somatic. It was the anatomy of melancholy, not the anatomy of his…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

It was a recession when I graduated, but I was so unequipped to have a job anyway, I don't think it would…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

There have been hermaphrodites around forever, Cal. Forever. Plato said that the original human being was a hermaphrodite. Did you know that?…

— Jeffrey Eugenides

She held herself very straight, like Audrey Hepburn, whom all women idolize and men never think about.

— Jeffrey Eugenides