“ Why do people go to these places, these places that are not for them?It must be that they believe in their night vision. They believe themselves able to draw images up out of the dark.But black wells… Helen Oyeyemi
“ The cards spoke to a suspicion that many whose work is play can never be free of: that you can only flaunt your triviality for so long before punishment is due. Helen Oyeyemi
“ [i]We were fighting so very hard and achieving so very little aside from staying alive. BUT THAT’S EVERYTHING, my father wrote to me, when I told him that in a letter.[/i] Helen Oyeyemi
“ So she quit working to make sense of things— we don’t realise it, but it’s hard work we do almost every waking moment, building out thoughts and memories and actions around time, things that happened… Helen Oyeyemi
“ All through dinner Arturo and I held hands under the table like a couple of kids, and that made the dinner quite wonderful, even though Mrs. Fletcher kept staring at Olivia as though committing her to… Helen Oyeyemi
“ I remember Mum repeatedly telling us we had good hearts and good brains. When she said that we'd say 'thanks' and it might have sounded as if we were thanking her for seeing us that way but actually w… Helen Oyeyemi
“ It was the usual struggle between one who loves by accepting burdens and one who loves by refusing to be one. Helen Oyeyemi
“ Young men ... learn practical skills that set is in good stead for lives as the husbands of wealthy and educated women: Strong Handshakes, Silence, Rudimentary Car Mechanics, How to Mow the Lawn, Expl… Helen Oyeyemi
“ She retained the opinions of trees: one of them being that it was best not to have anything to do with human folk. "Firstly, they cut us down," Rowan said. "Secondly they're all insane, though I suppo… Helen Oyeyemi
“ She had to quickly pop back to the fifteenth century to find a word for how beautiful he was. The boy was makeless. Helen Oyeyemi
“ 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 her?' came up so quickly. Helen Oyeyemi
“ She found Safiye leaning against an oil lantern out in the garden and saw for herself that she wasn't the only foolish woman in the world, or even at that party, for Safiye had Lucy's highly polished… Helen Oyeyemi
“ I think it's swell that there are people you don't have to worry about when you don't see them for a long time, you don't have to wonder what they do, how they're getting along with themselves. You ju… Helen Oyeyemi
“ I’m never sad when a friend goes far away, because whichever city or country that friend goes to, they turn the place friendly. They turn a suspicious-looking name on the map into a place where a welc… Helen Oyeyemi
“ Lucy happily settled down to work. First she sent for papyrus and handmade a book leaf by leaf, binding the leaves together between board covers. Then she filled each page from memory, drew English ro… Helen Oyeyemi
“ He honestly expected her to believe that she could make a bad offering and her ancestors wouldn't mind. Helen Oyeyemi
