Author

Sometimes I feel weird about time. Sometimes I feel that it doesn't go in the order we perceive it. There are... repetitions that maybe we decide not to notice because it is simpler. I like to pick up on those moments.

From Helen Oyeyemi

I don't have a style. I just try to write what the story demands.

From Helen Oyeyemi

The way I live now is that I only write, which means that I'm very poor but very happy. Everything in my life is the way I want it to be.

From Helen Oyeyemi

I remember that I used to get lots of books from the library, and 'Little Women' was one of them. And I used to just cross out the parts of it that really upset me because it's such a sad book in so many ways. I'd cross out the parts that upset me, and I would rewrite new endings.

From Helen Oyeyemi

In my family, telling stories is just a way of life.

From Helen Oyeyemi

I think I started writing about identity, and I used to believe that identity is the story. But now I'm not so much subscribed to that. I mean, with 'Mr. Fox,' it has a feminist agenda as well. And so, as I sort of been away from writing about identity, I still feel that kind of tug of roots and, you know, cultural background.

From Helen Oyeyemi

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 of what the culture that tells them thinks about various things: men, women, aging, dying - the most basic aspects of being human.

From Helen Oyeyemi

I was a real mess at school. I got a bit of a reputation for being the weird girl: the girl who'd go silent randomly and just kind of write down replies to people's questions in a book.

From Helen Oyeyemi

I think, basically, what I'm good for is reading - a lot. I think I'll always be more of a reader than a writer, definitely. There are sooo many books in the world I haven't read, sometimes I feel as if they're all piled on top of my head weighing me down and saying, 'Hurry up.'

From Helen Oyeyemi

I love taking things out of context and playing with them and chopping up rules.

From Helen Oyeyemi

Helen Oyeyemi

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