The Rules of Attraction

Set at a small, affluent liberal-arts college in New England at the height of the Reagan 80s, The Rules of Attraction is a startlingly funny, kaleidoscopic novel about three students with no plans for the future--or even the present--who

Characters

Bret Easton Ellis (10)

These were people I would never have spoken to out of this room, but here, at the party, I loathed them more than I thought possible.

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

Hating People I Hate People Anti-Social

…And if we won’t burn together, I’ll burn alone.

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

Leaving Failed Relationship Suffering Pain Loneliness

...and if we won't burn together, I'll burn alone.

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

Love romance Passionate Love Loving Deeply Lovers

No one will ever know anyone. We just have to deal with each other.

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

Relationships human actions human affairs Knowing People Dealing with Depression

Life is like a typographical error: we’re constantly writing and rewriting things over each other.

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

Life Fate Mistakes

No one ever likes the right person.

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

crushes Dating Relationships

What does that mean know me, know me, nobody ever knows anybody else, ever! You will never know me.

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

Knowledge Knowing

When the going gets tough, the tough go drinking.

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

Tough Drinking Alcohol

An especially loud New Order song comes from the open windows at McCullough, ‘Your Silent Face.’ Sean liked this song, so did Mitchell in fact. Gerald says, ‘Jesus, I really hate this song.’ I kiss him once more. It turns out to be the last song of the party. It fades out, nothing replaces it.

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

References to Songs In Literature and Books New Order

And it’s a story that might bore you but you don’t have to listen, she told me, because she always knew it was going to be like that, and it was, she thinks, her first year, or, actually weekend, really a Friday, in September, at Camden, and this was three or four years ago, and she got so drunk tha…

— Bret Easton Ellis, amazon.com

Virginity Losing Your Virginity College first lines of books NYU In Literature

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