The television replaced the sound of conversation that was missing from my grandparents' lives. Jeffrey Eugenides More Quotes by Jeffrey Eugenides More Quotes From 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 manifest itself. Jeffrey Eugenides manifestnormalifs You used to be able to tell a person's nationality by the face. Immigration ended that. Next you discerned nationality via the footwear. Globalization ended that. Jeffrey Eugenides immigrationnextable To start with, look at all the books. Jeffrey Eugenides booklooks Every letter was a love letter. Jeffrey Eugenides love-letterletters She was a large, disordered woman, like a child's drawing that didn't stay within the lines. Jeffrey Eugenides drawinglineschildren They're just memories now. Time to write them off. Jeffrey Eugenides writingmemories That was when Leonard realized something crucial about depression. The smarter you were, the worse it was. The sharper your brain, the more it cut you up. Jeffrey Eugenides cuttingbraindepression You can tell when something's not moving forward anymore. When the doubts you have about it don't go away. Jeffrey Eugenides moving-forwarddoubtmoving People don't save other people. People save themselves. Jeffrey Eugenides people Every letter was a love letter. Of course, as love letters went, this one could have been better. It was not very promising, for instance, that Madeleine claimed not to want to see him for the next half-century. Jeffrey Eugenides halfwantletters He remained heartbroken, which meant one of two things: either his love was pure and true and earthshakingly significant; or he was addicted to feeling forlorn, he liked being heartbroken. Jeffrey Eugenides heartbrokenfeelingstwo She lost much of her appetite. At night, an invisible hand kept shaking her awake every few hours. Grief was physiological, a disturbance of the blood. Sometimes a whole minute would pass in nameless dread - the bedside clock ticking, the blue moonlight coating the window like glue - before she`d remember the brutal fact that had caused it. Jeffrey Eugenides griefbluenight The lover`s discourse was of an extreme solitude. The solitude was extreme because it wasn`t physical. It was extreme because you felt it while in the company of the person you loved. It was extreme because it was in your head, the most solitary of places. Jeffrey Eugenides solitarysolitudelovers What if you had faith and performed good works, what if you died and went to heaven, and what if all the people you met there were people you didn't like? Jeffrey Eugenides what-ifheavenpeople Yes, you need a passport to prove to the world that you exist. The people at passport control, they cannot look at you and see you are a person. No! They have to look at a little photograph of you. Then they believe you exist. Jeffrey Eugenides believepeopleneeds It was amazing how it worked: the tiniest bit of truth made credible the greatest lies. Jeffrey Eugenides deceitmadelying What are you doing here, honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets." (...) "Obviously, Doctor," she said, "you've never been a thirteen-year-old girl. Jeffrey Eugenides doctorsgirlyears The world, a tired performer, offers us another half-assed season. Jeffrey Eugenides tiredhalfworld But that was in the days when they expected perils to come from without, and nothing made less sense by that time than a survival room buried in a house itself becoming one big coffin. Jeffrey Eugenides becoming-onesurvivalhouse our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them. Jeffrey Eugenides virgin-suicidesnoisejobs
