Home > Work > What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours QUOTES

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours QUOTES

1 " Other things my best friend said to me: That two years was but a short span. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

2 " 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. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

3 " 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 bangle in her hand and was turning it this way and that in order to catch fireflies in the billowing, transparent left sleeve of her gown. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

4 " 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 , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

5 " It was the usual struggle between one who loves by accepting burdens and one who loves by refusing to be one. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

6 " 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 we were thanking her for giving us whatever goodness was in us. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

7 " 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 , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

8 " 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 , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

9 " 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. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

10 " This girl had been looking on with her hair hanging over her face, only partly hiding a cruel-looking scar; her eyes shone with hatred. Not necessarily hatred of your father or of puppets or the other children, but a hatred of make-believe, which did not heal, but was only useful to the people who didn't need it. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

11 " 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. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

12 " 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. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

13 " Edith Wharton novels for two Henry James novels, Lucia Berlin’s short stories for John Cheever’s, Elaine Dundy’s The Dud Avocado for Dany Laferrière’s I Am a Japanese Writer, Dubravka Ugrešić’s Lend Me Your Character for Gogol’s How the Two Ivans Quarreled and Other Stories, Maggie Nelson’s Jane: A Murder for Capote’s In Cold Blood, Lisa Tuttle’s The Pillow Friend for The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

14 " Her superpower was picking emotionally unavailable partners and she doubted she'd get a better offer "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

15 " To you who eat a lot of rice because you are lonely
To you who sleep a lot because you are bored
To you who cry a lot because you are sad
I write this down.
Chew on your feelings that are cornered
Like you would chew on rice.

Anyway life is something that you need to digest.

- Chunyang Hee

("sorry" doesn't sweeten her tea) "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

16 " To have seen your lips and not ever kissed them would have been the ruin of me… "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

17 " Honoring delicacy over full disclosure only comes back to haunt you in the end. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

18 " But then you’re put back together again, in a wholly different order . . .” “And it hurts so much you don’t know if the new order will work.” “It’ll heal. It has to hurt before it heals, don’t you think?” He "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

19 " cities are fueled by the listless agony of workers providing services to other workers who barely acknowledge those services. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

20 " She’d call Montse to come and judge how well the picture was progressing. "Look here," she’d say, indicating a faint shape in the corner of the frame. "Look here –" Her fingertips glided over a darkening of colour in the distance. She sketched with an effort that strained every limb. Montse saw that the Señora sometimes grew short of breath though she’d hardly stirred. A consequence of snatching images out of the air – the air took something back. "

― Helen Oyeyemi , What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours