{"author":"Helen Oyeyemi","author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi","total_quotes":55,"quotes":[{"text":"Please tell a story about a girl who gets away.”I would, even if I had to adapt one, even if I had to make one up just for her. “Gets away from what, though?”“From her fairy godmother. From the happy ending that isn’t really happy at all. Please have her get out and run off the page altogether, to somewhere secret where words like ‘happy’ and ‘good’ will never find her.”“You don’t want her to be happy and good?”“I’m not sure what’s really meant by happy and good. I would like her to be free. Now. Please begin.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["fairy-tales","freedom"],"id":6224,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"},{"text":"The wooden devil got a good laugh out of the ones who passed by, though. They were so funny she couldn't even feel sorry for them. They tried so hard to keep track of time. Whenever they were together they couldn't let sixty of their minutes pass without asking each other what time it was; as if time was a volatile currency that they either possessed or did not possess, when in fact time was more of a fog that rose inexorably over all their words and deeds so that they were either forgotten or misremembered.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["memory","time"],"id":8042,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"},{"text":"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 yesterday, and things that are happening right now, and what’s coming tomorrow, layering all of that simultaneously and holding it in balance.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["balance","mind"],"id":23212,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"},{"text":"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 roses budding and Chinese roses in full bloom, peppercorn-pink Bourbon roses climbing walls and silvery musk roses drowsing in flowerbeds. She took every rose she'd ever seen, made them as lifelike as she could (where she shaded each petal the rough paper turned silken), and in these lasting forms she offered them to Safiye.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["books","love","papyrus","roses"],"id":40600,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"},{"text":"The way that people feel changes everything. Feelings are forces. They cause us to time travel. And to leave ourselves, to leave our bodies. I would be that kind of psychologist who says, 'You're absolutely right - there are monsters under the bed.'.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["time","changes","people "],"id":43270,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"},{"text":"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.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["boys-and-girls","feminism","gender","gender-equality"],"id":44524,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"},{"text":"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 only yield black water.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["adventure","belief","faith","helen-oyeyemi","white-is-for-witching"],"id":57107,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"},{"text":"Whenever they were together they couldn't let sixty of their minutes pass without asking each other what time it was; as if time was a volatile currency that they either possessed or did not possess, when in fact time was more of a fog that rose inexorably over all their words and deeds so that their were either forgotten or misremembered.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["childhood","nostalgia","time"],"id":68090,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"},{"text":"In Egypt, like everywhere, the land is made to fit the sky; but here it is more so. Here it is possible to say, “This is land,' and point, and “This is sky,' and point, but the eyes can’t discover the dividing line.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["horizon","land","sky"],"id":73017,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"},{"text":"A library at night is full of sounds: the unread books can't stand it any longer and announce their contents, some boasting, some shy, some devious.","author":"Helen Oyeyemi","tags":["books","library","night","romance"],"id":95654,"author_id":"Helen+Oyeyemi"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":55,"pages":6,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}