Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret."… I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions, like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." I'd like to show how "intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members" connects to "the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age." I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.

About Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Kent Eugenides (born March 8, 1960) is an American author. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: The Virgin Suicides (1993), Middlesex (2002), and The Marriage Plot (2011). The Virgin Suicides served as the basis of the 1999 film, while Middlesex received the...

More quotations from Jeffrey Eugenides

You never get over it. But you get to where it doesn’t bother you so much.

—Jeffrey Eugenides in The Virgin Suicides

memory moving on psychology

Can you see me? All of me? Probably not. No one ever really has.

—Jeffrey Eugenides in Middlesex

acceptance perception seeing

It’s amazing what you can get used to.

—Jeffrey Eugenides in Middlesex

normalcy adaptation

I live my own life and nurse my own wounds. It’s not the best way to live. But it’s the way I am.

—Jeffrey Eugenides in Middlesex

life healing

More quotations tagged with “emotion”

I owe much to mother. She had an expert's understanding, but also approached art emotionally.

—David Rockefeller

art emotion

When we fall in love with someone there's a moment when we take a picture of that person, an emotional snapshot, that we carry with us forever. If we're lucky, if we're very, very lucky, the person we fall in love with will always resemble that snapshot.

—Jim Geoghan in Light Sensitive

love emotion forever

Don't apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.

—Elizabeth Gilbert in Love

humanity crying emotion robots

Acting is not being emotional, but being able to express emotion.

—Kate Reid

emotion acting

Just because we aren't crying on the outside doesn't mean we aren't completely wrecked on the inside.

—Rachel Van Dyken

sadness emotion

History

4 Jul 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." . . . I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions, like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." I'd like to show how "intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members" connects to "the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age." I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.