All wisdom ends in paradox. Jeffrey Eugenides More Quotes by Jeffrey Eugenides More Quotes From Jeffrey Eugenides During a warm winter rain ... the basins of her collarbones collected water. Jeffrey Eugenides rain winter water Virgin suicide What was that she cried? No use in stayin' On this holocaust ride She gave me her cherry She's my virgin suicide Jeffrey Eugenides holocaust suicide use My change from girl to boy was far less dramatic than the distance anybody travels from infancy to adulthood. Jeffrey Eugenides distance girl boys If you think of even Tolstoy or a book like 'Anna Karenina,' you go from character to character, and each section is from the third person perspective of a different character, so you get to see the whole world a little more kaleidoscopically that way. That's traditional narrative manner, and I haven't done a book like that before, but I enjoyed it. Jeffrey Eugenides character book thinking That's the way I will write characters, put a fair amount of myself in them, and then everyone else who was like that person, I will pick and choose. Jeffrey Eugenides writing character way I have a good memory for early life. My visual memory is good about childhood and adolescence, and less good in the last 10 years. I could probably tell you less what happened in the last 10 years. I remember what houses looked like, sometimes they just pop into my head. Jeffrey Eugenides house memories years I studied English literature in the honors program, which means that you had to take courses in various centuries. You had to start with Old English, Middle English, and work your way toward the modern. I figured if I did that it would force me to read some of the things I might not read on my own. Jeffrey Eugenides literature honor mean When I wrote The Virgin Suicides, I gave myself very strict rules about the narrative voice: the boys would only be able to report what they had seen or found or what had been told to them. Jeffrey Eugenides narrative-voice suicide boys If love were endless, if it were on tap, it wouldn't hit us the way it does. And we certainly wouldn't write about it. Jeffrey Eugenides doe writing way I want an ending that’s satisfying. I’m more of a classical writer than a modernist one in that I want the ending to be coherent and feel like an ending. I don’t like when it just seems to putter out. I mean, life is chaotic enough. Jeffrey Eugenides life-is want mean Children learn to speak Male or Female the way they learn to speak English or French. Jeffrey Eugenides speak-english males children There is a small window of opportunity for freckled girls to tan. Jeffrey Eugenides girl opportunity window I have a lot of novels that I haven't finished. I usually get 150 pages in and I realize it's not going anywhere. I don't publish everything I write. I must have six unfinished novels at least. Jeffrey Eugenides six pages writing I had a briefcase at one point, but it was a kind of 1980s New Wave briefcase. It was made of some kind of cardboard and it had metal hinges. It was kind of faux industrial looking, and I used to carry my books in it rather than a backpack. I didn't want to have normal student accoutrements. Jeffrey Eugenides normal want book But I care about the reader, and I'm trying to keep the reader's attention for as long as I can. Jeffrey Eugenides trying attention long One of the reasons that art is important to me is sometimes it actually feels more coherent than life. It orders the chaos. Jeffrey Eugenides important order art Three times a day Petrovich showed up at the nurse's office for his injections, always using the hypodermic needle himself like the most craven of junkies, though after shooting up he would play the concert piano in the auditorium with astounding artistry, as though insulin were the elixir of genius. Jeffrey Eugenides piano nurse play The worst thing about religion was religious people. Jeffrey Eugenides religious people religion On their best days, writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers, all alone in their studios, with no one watching. Jeffrey Eugenides being-alone creativity winning He knew a lot about his grandparents - and perhaps he feels he's been endowed with abilities to go into people's heads who are long dead - but, to a certain extent, he's making it up. Jeffrey Eugenides grandparent long people
