“There’s a thing they’ve figured out about love. Scientifically. They’ve done studies to find out what keeps couples together. Do you know what it is? It isn’t getting along. Isn’t having money, or children, or a similar outlook on life. It’s just checking in with each other. Doing little kindnesses for each other. At breakfast, you pass the jam. Or, on a trip to New York City, you hold hands for a second in a smelly subway elevator. You ask “How was your day?” and pretend to care. Stuff like that really works.”

American author

Jeffrey Eugenides is an American author. He is known for fiction that has reached a wide audience, especially his novels The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex, and The Marriage Plot. Born in 1960, he has also written short stories and essays. His best-known novel, The Virgin Suicides, was adapted into a film in 1999. Middlesex brought him the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, and France’s Prix Médicis. His work is often read for its close attention to identity, family, and the pressures of modern life.