Quotes by Heather O'Neill

About Heather O'Neill:

Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by singer-songwriter John K. Samson. Lullabies won the competition. The book also won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for eight other major awards, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award and was longlisted for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

You feel as if everybody has been given an instruction manual on how to be likable, but you didn’t get it. And they are all sold out now. And if you are what you eat, then you must have surely spent the last few years of your life eating dog food a...

Heather O'Neill

You feel as if everybody has been given an instruction manual on how to be likable, but you didn't get it. And they all sold out now. And if you are what you eat, then you must have surely spent the last few years of your life eating dog food and cat...

Heather O'Neill

On of the reasons that I wanted to study literature was because it exposed everything. Writers looked for secrets that had never been mined. Every writer has to invent their own magical language, in order to describe the indescribable. They might see...

Heather O'Neill

Oh, we had a lot of sex back then in Montreal; it wasn’t just me. Blame it on the cold. The roses in everyone’s cheeks made them seem way more appealing than they actually were. We confused the indoors with intimacy and electric heating with conn...

Heather O'Neill

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

Heather O'Neill

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

Heather O'Neill

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.

Heather O'Neill

When you're a kid, if you watch 'The Jeffersons' with your family at seven o'clock, it seems like a natural phenomenon, like the sun setting. The universe is a strange, strange place when all of a sudden you can't use your glass with the Bionic Woman...

Heather O'Neill

People gave you a hard time about being a kid at twelve. They didn't want to give you Halloween candy anymore. They said things like, "If this was the Middle Ages, you'd be married and you'd own a farm with a million chickens on it." They were trying...

Heather O'Neill

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.

Heather O'Neill

People give you a hard time about being a kid at twelve. They didn't want to give you Halloween candy anymore. They said things like, "If this were the Middle Ages, you'd be married and you'd own a farm with about a million chickens on it." They were...

Heather O'Neill

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

Heather O'Neill

Suddenly I realized that I wanted everything to be as it was when I was younger. When you're young enough, you don't know that you live in a cheap lousy apartment. A cracked chair is nothing other than a chair. A dandelion growing out of a crack in t...

Heather O'Neill

Suddenly I realized that I wanted everything to be as it was when I was younger. When you're young enough, you don't know that you live in a cheap lousy apartment. A cracked chair is nothing other than a chair. A dandelion growing out of a crack in t...

Heather O'Neill

I've been all over the place in all kinds of living situations. Due to the fact that my mind is my own worst enemy. In a way I am perpetually and permanently in a state of rehabilitation m in an attempt to rehabilitate from the shock of being born.So...

Heather O'Neill

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

Heather O'Neill

You know you're my best friend, right?' he said. I shrugged. I guessed it was true. Now that I wasn't going to be at the parade, they would all hate me. Everything had been carefully choreographed, and me not being there would throw them all off. I r...

Heather O'Neill

The home is the most ritualized place in a society; each house is like a religious order with its own ceremonies.

Heather O'Neill

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.

Heather O'Neill

Sometimes when you are standing still and it’s snowing, you think that you hear music. You can’t tell where it’s coming from either. I wondered if we all really did have a soundtrack, but we just get so used to it that we can’t hear it anymor...

Heather O'Neill

Author Bio

  • NameHeather O'Neill
  • DescriptionCanadian writer
  • CountryCanada
  • ProfessionNovelist
  • WorksLullabies For Little Criminals