Jeffrey Eugenides Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“It wasn't conscious, but I guess that one book is the reaction to the other. The first is so imprisoned in a male point-of-view, and the second is a point-of-view that can go anywhere it wants.”

“Basically you come up with the fictional idea and you start writing that story, but then in order to write it and to make it seem real, you sometimes put your own memories in. Even if it's a character that's very different from you.”

“If you talk to geneticists they are constantly finding that your genes are being switched on and off because of the environment. Genes alone do not determine an exact path in your life.”

“It was painful, but sometimes you must have these painful moments where you tear yourself away from something that isn't working.”

“A few years ago in Chicago, I rented an office, and I went there every day. For the most part I do work at home in an ugly room.”

“But I care about the reader, and I'm trying to keep the reader's attention for as long as I can.”

“I always work in a room where there's no Internet to keep from being distracted so easily.”

“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.”

“I spend most of every day writing. I like to write every day if I can. I don't start extremely early.”

“I'm aware of cliches and I'm aware of experiments that have been done and I'm aware of a kind of deadness to a lot of realism both in the language and in the structure of a book.”