“I’ve always had a hard time figuring out what the moral of a story is supposed to be, and she was bound… — Helen Oyeyemi Hard time Copy Share Image
“Books. I am attracted and repelled; books are conversations that are not addressed to me and I want to sneak up and… — Helen Oyeyemi Book 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
“She ought to know that if you want to set yourself up as queen and have everything the way you want it… — Helen Oyeyemi Big fan Copy Share Image
“So she quit working to make sense of things— we don’t realise it, but it’s hard work we do almost every waking… — Helen Oyeyemi Balance Copy Share Image
“His puppets have a nihilistic spirit, if you'd understand what I meant by that. Sometimes his puppets won't perform at all. He… — Helen Oyeyemi Religion Copy Share Image
“He answered with a smile. The darkest and most malignant I had ever seen, too strong to be voluntary. The door, I… — Helen Oyeyemi Malignant Copy Share Image
“I think Poe's quite good, actually. The whole casual horror thing. Like someone standing next to you and screaming their head off… — Helen Oyeyemi Afraid of death Copy Share Image
“On a dais in a London church, the Virgin Mary sits suprised by a rough crest of candlelight. The discomforture isn't in… — Helen Oyeyemi Sacred space Copy Share Image
“Two hungry people should never make friends. If they do, they eat each other up. It is the same with one person… — Helen Oyeyemi Friendship Copy Share Image
I think I started writing about identity, and I used to believe that identity is the story. But now I'm not so… — Helen Oyeyemi About Copy Share Image
Wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking. The poem tells me it’s no big deal that I’m not… — Helen Oyeyemi Big deal Copy Share Image
“What nobody knew about the docile girl from Osogbo was that her heart was too heavy, and that almost from birth she… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
I don't think my writing has much to do with my age. For me, my biography is more about what I was… — Helen Oyeyemi About Copy Share Image
“And I think I decided not to love Charlie because I thought I had to be rescued. For practical reasons but also… — Helen Oyeyemi Fairy tales 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 Wrong turn Copy Share Image
I don't feel there's a difference between the real world and the fairy-tale world. They contain psychological truths and, I guess, projections… — Helen Oyeyemi About 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
“To the naked eye Boudicca is a haze of noxious green that lurks among fronds of seaweed looking exactly like the aftermath… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
However awful the storm of my disappointment, it's a response that belongs to me. It's my heart, after all. My territory, my… — Helen Oyeyemi Authority Copy Share Image
“And that was what all the expressions felt like— masks. I didn’t believe them. They were too thorough, too nuanced; they were… — Helen Oyeyemi Expressions Copy Share Image
“Lucy happily settled down to work. First she sent for papyrus and handmade a book leaf by leaf, binding the leaves together… — Helen Oyeyemi Books Copy Share Image
The way 'The Icarus Girl' came about was by me just basically bragging it with a literary agent and telling him I'd… — Helen Oyeyemi About 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
