Sheila Heti Quotes

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Sheila Heti

Profession : Writer

Birth : December 25, 1976

I don't think 'Motherhood' is a map for women. I would never say that it's a template for every woman in response to her biology.

Sheila Heti

I've written about women's lives, and I just want to write about them from being a woman. I don't need feminism on top of that when I'm writing.

Sheila Heti

My feminism is just part of my being - a part of my understanding of the world.

Sheila Heti

To me, something that's beautiful in terms of a book is something that lives inside the reader both as a discrete and complete thing, but also something that seeps out into their life and thoughts.

Sheila Heti

The main problem I've always had with fashion media is that women are encouraged to copy other women.

Sheila Heti

One good thing about being a woman is we haven't too many examples yet of what a genius looks like.

Sheila Heti

I think that part of the reason I like collaboration so much is because it's something unexpected coming in, and you have to stretch yourself to absorb it.

Sheila Heti

Raffi is arguably the world's most famous children's singer.

Sheila Heti

Raffi doesn't have any grand theories about why his music has been so successful, but he credits a group called the Babysitters as early inspiration.

Sheila Heti

Growing up, I never knew that Raffi turned down celebrity endorsements, TV shows, and specials and refused to make merchandise, but it makes sense given how I think about him: My memories are limited to his voice through the record player and the album covers I stared at.

Sheila Heti

Some of my favorite experiences of art are when I am there but my attention has wandered. I think stimulation is overrated, and persistent stimulation is exhausting. You sometimes have to be banal, tedious: make the rhythm go soft and slow, give the mind a rest.

Sheila Heti

I'd rather that people could be both entertained and given rest while reading my book than for someone to have to put the book down to take a rest. You can't just be lighting firecrackers all the time.

Sheila Heti

I think that so many people who have children seem to want other people to have children in order to make their choice feel more essential, more inevitable, and just more right.

Sheila Heti

To add something to the world should be the question, not not adding something to the world.

Sheila Heti

There's something about a woman's life choices that invites commentary, whether it's been invited or not.

Sheila Heti

I have this memory of being 15 years old, sitting with a friend on the steps of a little bookstore on Bloor Street in Toronto and saying, 'I'll never take money for my writing!' I had such idealism about this idea of trading your soul for money.

Sheila Heti

I feel like every single time I've published a book, there's some little light in me that goes out. I've seen the way people can misunderstand or misinterpret things, if not maliciously, then without a lot of sensitivity.

Sheila Heti

An artist's love for what they create is what creates love.

Sheila Heti

Tove Jansson was the most successful Finnish illustrator and writer of children's books of her day, and she was the most widely read Finn abroad. She began her life as an artist early - she had her first drawing published at fifteen.

Sheila Heti

A line drawn with love can make us as vulnerable as what the line depicts.

Sheila Heti