Best Of Helen Oyeyemi's "Mr. Fox"
Here is a selection of memorable quotes from Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi.
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| Painting above: At the Theatre c. 1928 by Prudence Heward |
It occurred to me that I was unhappy.
And it didn’t feel so very terrible.
No urgency, nothing.
I could slip out of my life on a slow wave like this - it didn’t matter.
I don’t have to be happy.
All I have to do is hold on to something and wait.
p. 46
Miss Foxe’s other passion was fairy tales.
She loved the transformations in them.
Everybody was in disguise, or on their way to becoming something else.
And all was overcome by order in the end.
p.74
Pizarsky looked at Mrs. Fox often throughout the evening,
and each time he looked it was for a moment longer than was casual.
His gaze was hesitant. Almost meek.
p.142
I love sleeping. Waking is more and more hateful the older I get.
I say this as if I’ve lived too long. I’m twenty-two.
p.146
She was self-conscious about her mouth
and called it her clumsy flytrap,
but my Aunt Molly told me that’s how it should be -
when a woman’s lips are larger than her eyes
it’s a sign she’s warm-hearted.
p.161
Other people’s mothers told them to “be good” or to “take care.”
Mine told me to be bad and wicked and not to worry.
p.163
Jonas isn’t keen on her, either.
It exasperates him that she uses his name so often whilst speaking to him;
it gives the impression that she’s trying her hardest not to forget who on earth he is.
p.164
And his sadness was luminous.
p.215
Her heart was heavy because it was open,
and so things filled it,
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.
p.218
“He has a tyrannical moustache,” my daughter said.
“It would be impossible to live with.”
p.244
Our people really know how to discuss a matter from head to toe;
it is our gift, and such conversation on a balmy evening
can be sweeter than sugar.
p.247
“I’m never sad when a friend goes away,
because whichever city or country that friend goes to,
they turn the place friendly.
They turn a suspicious-looking name on the map
into a place where a welcome can be found.”
p.254
It bugged me that she didn’t kiss him good-bye,
as if now even a simple kiss on the cheek
could mean something between them.
p.272
Everyone hurts themselves in the city;
then they just pick themselves up
so as not to get in anyone else’s way.
p.299
Sometimes you see that someone is marked
and you’re helpless after that - you love.
p.318
