Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. Jeffrey Eugenides More Quotes by Jeffrey Eugenides More Quotes From Jeffrey Eugenides Mitchell had answered that, as far as he understood them, mystical experiences were significant only to the extent that they changed a person's conception of reality, and if that changed conception led to a change in behavior and action, a loss of ego. Jeffrey Eugenides mystical-experienceslossreality Winter is the season of alcoholism and despair. Jeffrey Eugenides alcoholismdespairwinter That was the deal basically: catatonia without; frenzy within Jeffrey Eugenides frenzydeals He had the feeling that there was something physically behind his eyes, blocking the light. Jeffrey Eugenides blocklighteye The more she thought about it, the more Madeleine understood that extreme solitude didn't just describe the way she was feeling about Leonard. It explained how she'd always felt when she was in love. It explained what love was like and, just maybe, what was wrong with it. Jeffrey Eugenides solitudefeelingsway -Who are you, anyway? -Just someone who knows, from personal experience, how attractive it can be to think you can save somebody else by loving them. Jeffrey Eugenides attractiveknowsthinking College wasn't like the real world. In the real world people dropped names based on their renown. In college, people dropped names based on their obscurity. Jeffrey Eugenides realcollegenames She could become a spinster, like Emily Dickinson, writing poems full of dashes and brilliance, and never gaining weight. Jeffrey Eugenides spinstersweightwriting My house fly theory is related to my theory about why time seems to go faster as you get older." "Why's that?" the girl asked. "It's proportional," Leonard explained. "When you're five, you've only been alive a couple thousand days. But by the time you're fifty, you've lived around twenty thousand days. So a day when you're five seems longer because it's a greater percentage of the whole. Jeffrey Eugenides girlcouplehouse Her eyes watered and she was a foot taller than any of her sisters, mostly because of the length of her neck which would one day hang from the end of a rope Jeffrey Eugenides one-dayeyefeet Lux spent the ride dialing the radio for her favorite song. "It makes me crazy," she said. "You know they're playing it somewhere, but you have to find it. Jeffrey Eugenides radiocrazysong When you stood between somebody you loved and death, it was hard to be awake and it was hard to sleep. Jeffrey Eugenides awakehardsleep So do boys and men announce their intentions. They cover you like a sarcophagus lid. And call it love. Jeffrey Eugenides intentionmenboys Paris was a museum displaying exactly itself. Jeffrey Eugenides parismuseums If you grew up in a house where you weren't loved, you didn't know there was an alternative. Jeffrey Eugenides alternativeshouselove The trees like lungs filling with air. My sister, the mean one, pulling my hair. Jeffrey Eugenides hairtreemean Remember that day you said you loved me? Remember that? See, you could do that because you're basically a sane person, who grew up in a loving, sane family. You could take a risk like that. But in my family we didn't go around saying we loved each other. We went around screaming at each other. So what do I do, when you say you love me? I go and undermine it. Jeffrey Eugenides my-familyriskremember A girl's not a watermelon you plug a hole in to see if it's sweet. Jeffrey Eugenides holesgirlsweet I'm not really an autobiographical writer, though I use lots of stuff from my life to make my stories seem real. But when I actually write about myself, I get very confused. Jeffrey Eugenides confusedrealwriting I'd like to show how 'intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members' connects with 'the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age. Jeffrey Eugenides mirrorshatredage
