Fairy tales, because they have a very clear structure, are easier to interfere with. Also they have this really weird logic: the kind of logic that you only really experience when you're not feeling very well, or as a child. — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
“Sometimes a child with wise eyes is born. Then some people will call that child an old soul. That is enough to make God laugh. For instance there is Yemaya Saramagua, who lives in the somewherehouse.” — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
“Juju is not enough to protect you. Everything you have I will turn against you. I'll turn sugar bitter for you. I'll take your… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
I do tend to feel more connected to dead writers, perhaps because they have finished their work. — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
“People don’t make too much money around here, but what comes with that is a different definition of what it means to be well-off. You’re chairman of the board if you need twelve dollars a week and you make twelve dollars a week. If you’ve also got someone within ten minutes’ walk who can make you laugh and someone else… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share
“He looked honored, extraordinarily honored, seeming to care for that which tore his flesh than he did for the flesh itself, embracing the blade… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
“White-flowered shrubs thickened around her and so did sleep; it directed her limbs. Lie down now, sleep said sweetly. Lie down. These are the… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
I don't despise 'Don Quixote,' but it is a book I don't... get. I'll have to come back it. Maybe there'll be a gateway… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
“I think her favorite thing about our . . . collaboration was her actor and musician friends rubbing shoulders with my academic colleagues, she liked the atmosphere of challenge, the way anything that came under discussion could be claimed or rejected by either side. Time and time again the power of an idea or a piece of art was assessed… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share
“After half an hour the Senora emerged, short of breath, with flushed cheeks…as uf she'd been seized and shaken like a faulty thermometer.” — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
“It was the usual struggle between one who loves by accepting burdens and one who loves by refusing to be” — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
“Pops says he loves me just the way I am, but not everyone in the world is like my father. Maman, for example. A difficult and dissatisfied woman. She made me learn flower arranging and how to walk properly -- books on my head, the whole bit. These things ruined me for life. Now it sets my teeth on edge… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share
“With boys there was a fundamental assumption that they had a right to be there—not always, but more often than not. With girls, Why… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
