Helen Oyeyemi

"I also love books of people learning to do this like going to ballet school, or how to ride horses. Theres just something about the process and setbacks its very interesting."

"The only way to try and interrogate or possibly persuade stories to reveal something about themselves is to make all these provocations and assaults on them, and try and unpack them and unpick their seams and see if they react."

"Please tell me 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 isnt really happy at all. Please have her get out and run off of the page altogether, to somewhere secret where words like happy and good will never find her." "You dont want her to be happy and good?" "Im not sure whats really meant by happy and good. I would like her to be free. Now. Please begin." White for Witching (2010) p 165"

"Her heart was heavy because it was open, and so things filled it, and so things rushed out of it, but still the heart kept beating, tough and frighteningly powerful and meaning to shrug off the rest of her and continue on its own”. Mr Fox (2011) p 171"

"You don’t return people’s smiles—it’s perfectly clear to you that people can smile and smile and still be villains." Boy, Snow, Bird (2014) p 8"