Jennifer Egan Way Quotations

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.

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.

We live in a moment and a culture when reading is really endangered. There's simply no way to write well, though, if you're not reading well.

That adage about 'Write what you know' is basically the opposite of the way I function. I write about what I'm curious to find out.

I think ethical ambivalence is a kind of innoculation, a way of excusing yourself in advance for something you actually want to do. No offense.