172 Quotes by Sheila Heti

Women’s fiction” doesn’t sound like anything but a slur to my ears.

How far beyond your mother do you hope to get? You are not going to be a different woman entirely, so just be a slightly altered version of her, and relax.

The lonely fill up their lives with books. I don’t live in nature. I don’t live in culture. I don’t live in my relationships. I live in books. What good can all the books of the world be, penned by the loneliest men who ever lived?

Maybe motherhood means honoring one's mother.

Perhaps I can carry my home on my back, if home is nothing but this cocoon, in which I can write and feel fine.

It has long been known to me that certain objects want you as much as you want them. These are the ones that become important, the objects that you hold dear. The others fade from your life entirely. You wanted them, but they did not want you in return.

Alone, one feels the whole universe, and none of one's personality.

Life is not a harvest. Just because you have an apple doesn’t mean you have an orchard. You have an apple. Put a fence around it. Once you have put a fence around everything you value, then you have the total circle of your heart.

this daddy longlegs...became like a pet,' I offered. 'I remember that.' 'Not something you could control, but something you could love. But if it had left the bathroom and invaded the bedroom, you probably wouldn't have liked it so much. But keeping it in the bathroom allowed you to love it. Keeping it in there was a sign that you loved it...Barriers. We need them. They let you love someone. Otherwise you might kill them.