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 EugenidesChildren learn to speak Male or Female the way they learn to speak English or French.
Jeffrey EugenidesRegret, already sogging me down, burst its dam. It seeped into my legs, it pooled in my heart.
Jeffrey EugenidesWhenever we got a glimpse, their faces looked indecently revealed, as though we were used to seeing women in veils.
Jeffrey EugenidesThe girls took into their own hands decisions better left to God. They became too powerful to live among us, too self-concerned, too visionary, too blind.
Jeffrey EugenidesI was thinking how amazing it was that the world contained so many lives. Out in these streets people were embroiled in a thousand different matters, money problems, love problems, school problems. People were falling in love, getting married, going to drug rehab, learning how to ice-skate, getting bifocals, studying for exams, trying on clothes, getting their hair-cut and getting born. And in some houses people were getting old and sick and were dying, leaving others to grieve. It was happening all the time, unnoticed, and it was the thing that really mattered.
Jeffrey Eugenides