Jennifer Egan Quotes

“Everyone we've lost, we'll find. Or they'll find us.”

“I can't tell if she's actually real, or if she's stopped caring if she's real or not. Or is not caring what makes a person real?”

“The world is full of shitheads, Rhea. Don’t listen to them—listen to me. And I know that Lou is one of those shitheads. But I listen.”

“I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.”

“See," Sasha muttered, eyeing the sun. "It's mine.”

“The pause makes you think the song will end. And then the song isn't really over, so you're relieved. But then the song does actually end, because every song ends, obviously, and THAT. TIME. THE. END. IS. FOR. REAL.”

“There's a fine line between thinking about somebody and thinking about not thinking about somebody, but I have the patience and the self-control to walk that line for hours - days, if I have to.”

“I think, The world is actually huge. That's the part no one can really explain.”

“If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you.”

“Sure, everything is ending," Jules said, "but not yet.”

“There are so many ways to go wrong. All we've got are metaphors, and they're never exactly right. You can never just Say. The. Thing.”

“Structural dissatisfaction: Returning to circumstances that once pleased you, after having experienced a more thrilling or opulent way of life, and finding that you can no longer tolerate them.”

“Time’s a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?” Scotty shook his head. “The goon won.”

“I’m done. I’m old, I’m sad - that’s on a good day. I want out of this mess. But I don’t want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art.”

“Everybody sounds stoned, because they're e-mailing people the whole time they're talking to you.”

“Her only thought was of getting away, as if she were carrying a live grenade from inside the house, so that when it exploded, it would destroy just herself.”

“Redemption, transformation--God how she wanted these things. Every day, every minute. Didn't everyone?”

“It was the hat. He looked sweet in the hat. How could a man in a fuzzy blue hat have used human bones to pave his roads?”

“Rich children are always blond, Jocelyn goes. It has to do with vitamins.”

“That we have some history together that hasn’t happened yet.”

“th blu nyt
th stRs u can't c
th hum tht nevr gOs awy”

“The answers were maddeningly absent—it was like trying to remember a song that you knew made you feel a certain way, without a title, artist, or even a few bars to bring it back.”

“When does a fake Mohawk become a real Mohawk? Who decides? How do you know if it's happened?”

“This is the music business. 'Five years is five hundred years' - your words.”

“and the question is, which one is really “you”

“What he needed was to find fifty more people like him, who had stopped being themselves without realizing it.”

“I know I'm famous and irresitible - a combination whose properties closely resemble radioactivity - and I know that you in this room are helpless against me.”

“Now that Scotty has entered the realm of myth, everyone wants to own him. And maybe they should. Doesn't a myth belong to everyone?”

“Too clear, too clean. The problem was precision, perfection;”

“Kissing Mother Superior, incompetent, hairball, poppy seeds, on the can.”

“The sky was electric blue above the trees but the yard felt dark. Stephanie went to the edge of the lawn and sat her forehead on her knees. The grass and soil were still warm from the day. She wanted to cry but she couldn't. The feeling was too deep.”