“Once you let people know anything about what you think, that's it, you're dead. Then they'll be jumping about in your mind, taking things out, holding them up to the light and killing them, yes, killing them, because thoughts are supposed to stay and grow in quiet, dark places, like butterflies in cocoons.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from A Menina Icaro
“Two hungry people should never make friends. If they do, they eat each other up. It is the same with one person who is hungry and another who is full: they cannot be real, real friends because the hungry one will eat the full one. You understand?”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from A Menina Icaro
“Would that be dangerous, to not look while being looked at?”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from A Menina Icaro
“Finally, he smiled, and although his smile was bumpy because some of his teeth were jagged and broken, it was a warming, infectious smile that was reflected in his eyes. It made her smile widely in return. She felt as if the room had been lit up. He held out his arms, and she went across the room to him, almost running. She buried her face in his shirt, her nose wrinkling up as the scent of his cologne mixed with the nutty, sourish smell of camphor that filled the room. He put his arms around her, but gently, so that there was space between his forearms and her back, holding her as if she was to fragile to hug properly. Awkwardly, he patted her light, bushy aureole of dark brown hair, repeating: "Good girl. Fine daughter.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from A Menina Icaro
“She had a new bracelet on, stacked with emeralds brighter than her eyes. I hate rich people.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from A Menina Icaro
“But Jess was sliding breathlessly down into the waiting sky, so she couldn't find the words to tell TillyTilly that sisters was something about being held without hands, and the skin-flinch of seeing and simultaneously being seen.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from A Menina Icaro
“Didn’t she know that knowing why doesn’t make things any less scary?”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from A Menina Icaro
“What’s the matter, Jess? Why are you sad?’ And she’d have to explain that she wasn’t sad, just tired, though how she could be so tired in the middle of the day with the sun shining and everything, she didn’t know. It made her feel ashamed.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from A Menina Icaro
“Once you let people know anything about what you think, that’s it, you’re dead. Then they’ll be jumping about in your mind, taking things out, holding them up to the light and killing them, yes, killing them, because thoughts are supposed to stay and grow in quiet, dark places, like butterflies in cocoons.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from A Menina Icaro
Helen Oyeyemi
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“As I follow them up, my phone buzzes. I pause, my heart racing with anticipation. I know it’s from Ryder even before I see his name on the screen, followed by three lines of text.
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Romeo and Juliet? I type back, smiling giddily. I should know this--we studied the play in ninth grade.
Yeah. It’s Juliet’s line, but it works for me.
I love you, Ryder Marsden.
Not half as much as I love you, Jemma Cafferty.
Sighing dreamily, I shove the phone back in my jacket pocket and hurry off to find my friends.
Do I ever have a tale to tell them.”
― Kristi Cook, quote from Magnolia
“What began the change was the very writing itself. Let no one lightly set about such a work. Memory, once waked, will play the tyrant.”
― C.S. Lewis, quote from Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
“Sleep, she said. Sleep while you can. Forget where you are and forget the mountain of days. Each one enormous, lost in some forest that never ends, but then the edge will fold back and you'll walk on what was the sky and is now only another forest floor, another layer, and you can feel the weight of hundreds of these layers above you.”
― David Vann, quote from Aquarium
“I’m slowly learning that my happiest, most special moments happen when the circus is at its peak.”
― quote from Grace, Not Perfection: Embracing Simplicity, Celebrating Joy
“she was the kind of woman who couldn’t live without meaning, powerful and real meaning, in her life.”
― Sierra Simone, quote from Priest
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