Helen Oyeyemi Quotes
born 1984 England
Helen Oyeyemi (December 10, 1984) is a British novelist and writer of short stories.
- England
- Authors
- Novelists
- Short story writers
Also known as: Helen oyeyemi
Random Helen Oyeyemi quote
58 quotes
“Have you ever heard a note in someone's voice that said 'This is the end?' I heard it in the next words he said to me, and I stopped listening.”
"The truth shall set you free” (Chapter 11, Page 86)
The Icarus Girl (2005)
'But what will I do for a whole year?'
“One or the other of us said 'I can't,' and if it was me I don't know why because I wanted to. Maybe I'm just remembering it wrongly to help me get over the rejection.”
“Imagine having a mother who worries that you read too much. The question is, what is it that's supposed to happen to people who read too much? How can you tell when someone's crossed the line.”
"Jesus doesn’t have lips as big as yours, and his skin is fair. How can you ever be as good as him on the outside when there’s nothing of him on your face?” (Page 246)
The Icarus Girl (2005)
“His heavy eyebrows lowered and he made some small, involuntary gesture with his hand that was recognisably superstitious, as if the words 'God forbid' had flowed into his body.”
"Wuraola sounded like another person. Not her at all. Should she answer to this name, and by doing so steal the identity of someone who belonged here?” (Part 1, Chapter 4, Page 28)
The Icarus Girl (2005)
"He was looking at her, but in a distracted manner, as if she was something to look at while he waited for something else.”(Page 15)
The Icarus Girl (2005)
"‘You weren’t, though! If that had been my father ’handling that’, she would’ve been flat on the floor with a few teeth missing!’” (Page 198)
The Icarus Girl (2005)
“I examined the portraits nearest to me but couldn't get past the sensation that here was the same man over and over, crouched in old boxes, readying himself to spit on my plate.”
“Have you forgotten about our fox?
The one who now had an eye for beauty, and an inclination to set it apart from other things . . .”
"The only way to try and interrogate or possibly persuade stories to reveal something about themselves is to make all these provocations and assaults on them, and try and unpack them and unpick their seams and see if they react."
“...a place can live in you without letting you know about it for the longest time.” Parasol Against the Axe (2024)
“It was like dancing with a mask that was attached to a stick—she dared not lower it, no matter how tiring it was to hold the mask up. She was the ugly girl at the ball.”
Sleeping Beauty is not herself, and doesn’t become so until the isolation of her hundred-year sleep, during which she must dream her own dreams. Carabosse’s curse is the most meaningful gift the girl could have been given.
Without further ado I give you my number one [anti-heroine]: Carabosse, the fairy who goes where she is not invited expressly in order to curse a princess whose life was all set up to be a bright and gracious path from birth to death.
“I wish there was someone I could have written to after that, someone I could have written to explain how awful it was to have someone touch you, then look at you properly and change his mind.”