Heather O'Neill Quotes

It never occurs to you when you are very young to need something other than what your parents have to offer you.

Adolescents are attracted to tragic heroes. That's why rock stars dress like homeless people. Adolescence is a fall. It's when every child becomes an orphan.

Love is a big and wonderful idea, but life is made up of small things. As a kid, you have nothing to do with the way the world is run; you just have to hurry to catch up with it.

You see only the beautiful things when you stand still. You only see things that you don't ordinarily notice. The birds are the prettiest things, I imagine.

A lot of children grow up in poverty with flawed parents, but their inner world is still as inherently filled with wonder and innocence as children who are kept away from the city's underbelly.

I had a ludicrous childhood, but I feel that I was able to profit from a lot of the idiotic and unfortunate things that happened to me by turning them into fiction.

In the temporary illumination of the headlights, the insects were scribbling out messages from God that we couldn't get.

Somewhere, a sparrow is singing in B minor.

The stars are always up in the sky...then when it is perfectly black, they feel less vulnerable and out they come.

Adolescents are still children in that they can't yet tell the difference between make believe and fiction.

From the way that people have always talked about your heart being broken, it sort of seemed to be a one-time thing. Mine seemed to break all the time.

Lonely children probably wrote the Bible.

The ground was silvery, as if some stars had fallen there.

My breath in the cold air was bleach that accidentally spilled on a black t-shirt.

I have an artistic temperament, which is a really tragic thing.

All writers have the idea that they are famous.

Intimacy makes you feel unique. Intimacy makes you feel as though you have been singled out, that someone in the world believes you have special qualities that nobody else has.

I was always moved when mean people were suddenly nice to me. It was a weakness that would lead me into some bad relationships later in life.

What the hell is that?" he asked."Magic mushrooms.""I've always wanted to try those, " he exclaimed. "They sound so cute.

Women aren't mean the way that men are. They're full of life and they're like God in that way.

His adolescents are displaced aristocrats who have lost their kingdom and wealth, which was childhood. [On J.D. Salinger]

Childhood is the most valuable thing that's taken away from you in life, if you think about it.

That was desire messing with physics: putting its finger on the record and then slowing it down, making sure you heard every word spoken, and memorized it.

The smallest a family can be is two members, and that was Jules and me.