She opened her mouth but did not immediately speak, and I felt, simultaneously, the impulse to coax the words from her and the impulse to suppress them. I always thought I wanted to know a secret, or I wanted an event to unfold – I wanted my life to start – but in those rare moments when it seemed like something might actually change, panic shot through me.
Curtis SittenfeldShe was the reason I was a reader, and being a reader was what had made me most myself; it had given me the gifts of curiosity and sympathy, an awareness of the world as an odd and vibrant contradictory place, and it had me unafraid of its oddness and vibrancy and contradictions.
Curtis SittenfeldOf course, I didn't imagine then that I could have had a real relationship with any guy. I thought that by virtue of being me I was disqualified.
Curtis SittenfeldOf course a magazine is usually more interesting than a conversation, because so much more time and preparation has gone into it.
Curtis SittenfeldI just think that people are complicated, both men and women. It happens that I write more about women.
Curtis SittenfeldI liked the idea of giving Eligible a feminist flavor. While I do think that in Pride and Prejudice, Liz Bennet is very bold, she is also very restricted in terms of what's appropriate for her to do and the ways it's appropriate for her to behave. One of the differences between Pride and Prejudice and Eligible is that my female characters take more initiative in their romantic lives.
Curtis Sittenfeld