I take aliens very seriously and don't appreciate light entertainment or weak approximations being made of them. — Helen Oyeyemi Alien Copy Share Image
“The stormy night turned the window of Lucy's room into a door;” — Helen Oyeyemi Night Turned Copy Share Image
I dont have a style. I just try to write what the story demands. — Helen Oyeyemi Demand Copy Share Image
“She had a new bracelet on, stacked with emeralds brighter than her eyes. I hate rich people.” — Helen Oyeyemi Emeralds Copy Share Image
I do tend to feel more connected to dead writers, perhaps because they have finished their work. — Helen Oyeyemi Because Copy Share Image
“The general advice is always be yourself, be yourself, which only makes sense if you haven't got an attitude problem.” — Helen Oyeyemi Advice Copy Share Image
“They tried their best with each other, but it just wasn’t any good.” — Helen Oyeyemi Good Copy Share Image
I've always felt happy in my own company. It's only when I get around other people that things get sticky. — Helen Oyeyemi Always Copy Share Image
Magic is an exercise of a pattern of thought (sometimes represented by a gesture, ritual, or the calling of a true name)… — Helen Oyeyemi Calling Copy Share Image
“You come without papers because you have been unable to prove that you are useful to anyone, and when you arrive they… — Helen Oyeyemi Arrive Prison Copy Share Image
“She looked at the last thing she had written and she felt calm. Then she crossed the words out vehemently, scribbling until… — Helen Oyeyemi Anger Copy Share Image
“She was an ordinary librarian, innocent of any crime, but one day she fell into a giant paint box and has been… — Helen Oyeyemi Heart Copy Share Image
I always wanted to be a writer! But I wanted to do other things, too - be a psychologist, a librarian, et… — Helen Oyeyemi Always Copy Share Image
“Last summer I spent almost an hour blowing dandelions off their stems towards him, so that he had a chance to wish… — Helen Oyeyemi Dandelions Copy Share Image
“She encouraged herself to see her very small presence in the world as a good thing, a power, something that a hero… — Helen Oyeyemi Encouraged Copy Share Image
“With growing disbelief, Jess yet again felt herself slipping into the gap - that gap of perception between what is really happening… — Helen Oyeyemi Disbelief Copy Share Image
“... it's not whiteness itself that sets Them against Us, but the worship of whiteness. Same goes if you swap whiteness out… — Helen Oyeyemi Racism Copy Share Image
“As nighttime turned into dawn, the mountain seemed to travel down the street. It advanced on tiptoe, fully prepared to be shooed… — Helen Oyeyemi Mountain Wish Copy Share Image
Solitary people, these book lovers. I think it's swell that there are people you don't have to worry about when you don't… — Helen Oyeyemi Book Copy Share Image
The way that people feel changes everything. Feelings are forces. They cause us to time travel. And to leave ourselves, to leave… — Helen Oyeyemi Absolutely Copy Share Image
The first book I really loved was 'Little Women' - I'd have given anything for Beth to have been allowed to live;… — Helen Oyeyemi Allowed Copy Share Image
I do love Shirley Jackson, but I don't deserve to be named in connection with her. I remember reading 'The Haunting of… — Helen Oyeyemi Actually Copy Share Image
I see all mythology as one tradition, a way of disseminating knowledge that must come to us in code so that we… — Helen Oyeyemi Code Copy Share Image
I sometimes get asked: 'How come the men in your stories don't have such strong characters?' And I'm like: 'I don't care.'… — Helen Oyeyemi About Copy Share Image
“Finally, he smiled, and although his smile was bumpy because some of his teeth were jagged and broken, it was a warming,… — Helen Oyeyemi Afro-hair Copy Share Image
“Mostly, when Jess didn't want to talk about her ideas in class, Colleen thought that Jess was showing off, making sure that… — Helen Oyeyemi Butterflies 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… — Helen Oyeyemi Parenting Copy Share Image
“Our favorite film is Vertigo . Amy Eleni and I must watch it seventeen or eighteen times a year, and with each… — Helen Oyeyemi Cinema Copy Share Image
“What you're doing is building a horrible kind of logic. People read what you write and they say, 'Yes, he is talking… — Helen Oyeyemi Beautiful woman Copy Share Image
I’m never sad when a friend goes far away, because whichever city or country that friend goes to, they turn the place… — Helen Oyeyemi Being there Copy Share Image
“There was a framed photograph hung on the wall in front of me, and when I said your name I saw you… — Helen Oyeyemi Black and white Copy Share Image
“The best line of work for me would be roadside sprite. I'd live quietly by a dust-covered track that people never came… — Helen Oyeyemi Roadside Copy Share Image
“All around them people were speaking a language Brown didn’t understand; it was like silence with sharp edges in it.” — Helen Oyeyemi Language Copy Share Image
I love character and voice, and my favourite books have been the ones in which I've become completely absorbed. — Helen Oyeyemi Absorb Copy Share Image
I can recommend wearing blue mascara whilst writing. I'm telling you, it really adds something. — Helen Oyeyemi Adds Copy Share Image
“And she told Monste all about it as she poured coffee into vases for them both. (It was true! It was true!)” — Helen Oyeyemi Poured Coffee Copy Share Image
“Dark came to rest on my eyelids; strange and painful pennies.” — Helen Oyeyemi Dark Copy Share Image
That's the ideal meeting...once upon a time, only once, unexpectedly, then never again. — Helen Oyeyemi Meeting Copy Share Image
Because things grow. Wherever there is air and light and open space, things grow. — Helen Oyeyemi Air Copy Share Image
“There are still days when I can only work out whether or not I'm upset by looking at my face.” — Helen Oyeyemi Face Copy Share Image
