Top 140 Helen Hoang Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “I have to think really hard when I talk. Otherwise I blurt out rude things, and I alienate everyone.”

— Helen Hoang

102. “He’d never have cake again and not think of her, never drink champagne and not think of her. Every success of his life would taste like Esme.”

— Helen Hoang

103. “When you loved something, you were good at it. If you weren’t good right away, you got good at it.”

— Helen Hoang

104. “His house was his sanctuary, the one place where he could escape people and just be.”

— Helen Hoang

105. “She had a disorder, but it didn’t define her.”

— Helen Hoang

106. “I walk home in a sort of trance. It’s not until passing pedestrians give me double takes and odd looks that I realize I’m crying. I don’t try to stop. I let the tears fall. I cry for the girl I used to be. I cry for me. It’s a foreign experience. Self-pity is not an indulgence that I allow myself. This doesn’t feel like pity, though. It feels like self-compassion, and the realization makes me cry harder. No one should need a diagnosis in order to be compassionate to themself.”

— Helen Hoang

107. “More precisely, I’m an econometrician.” In Michael’s book, that put her solidly in the brainiac category, and an odd feeling ghosted up the back of his neck. Damned if he didn’t have a thing for smart girls.”

— Helen Hoang

108. “He was a puzzle she never would have been able to solve if he hadn’t shown her how. Those were the best kinds of puzzles, though, weren’t they? The ones no one else could figure out?”

— Helen Hoang

109. “This was the beauty of apparel. A suit transformed you into a certain kind of person. A T-shirt, a different kind of person.”

— Helen Hoang

110. “Sometimes he was alone out of habit. Sometimes it took effort to distract himself from the growing emptiness inside.”

— Helen Hoang

111. “The hero didn’t even have to win. All he had to do to get the girl was fight for her. If he lost, she’d kiss him better.”

— Helen Hoang

112. “The thing with feelings is they pass. Hearts aren’t designed to feel anything too intensely for too long, be it joy, sorrow, or anger. Everything passes in time. All colors fade.”

— Helen Hoang

113. “All I’ve got at this point is me. I have to be enough.”

— Helen Hoang

114. “She’d woken up this morning with her new phone glued to her face and a blanket over her. He’d covered her in her sleep.”

— Helen Hoang

115. “He exhaled sharply, and his brow creased in puzzlement. “You don’t like French kissing?” “It makes me feel like a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish.” It was weird and far too personal.”

— Helen Hoang

116. “The length of an arm? That’s a strange saying. And so lonely.”

— Helen Hoang

117. “He wanted to take his time and see if he could make her shine with a different kind of excitement.”

— Helen Hoang

118. “What do you think? Does it feel right to you?” he asks, and I can tell that’s what matters to him. He trusts me to know myself. I didn’t know how important that was to me until now. I get to be the expert on me.”

— Helen Hoang

119. “Your body wages biological warfare on me.”

— Helen Hoang

120. “The government didn’t care about her, the schools didn’t, the scholarship organizations didn’t, but this one person did, and sometimes one person could make a world of difference.”

— Helen Hoang

121. “It wasn’t an absolute of course. People were people, and they hated to be entirely predictable.”

— Helen Hoang

122. “I hate his smile for how much I like it. I know it’s illogical, I know it’s cowardly. But I back away from him farther, shaking my head.”

— Helen Hoang

123. “If you treat his daughter right, he’ll love you.”

— Helen Hoang

124. “She hoped he thought of her when he pleasured himself. Because he’d be doing a lot of that from now on.”

— Helen Hoang

125. “Everything about him pleased her. Not just his looks, but his patience and his kindness. He was good. He was an obsession waiting to happen.”

— Helen Hoang

126. “Show me how to make it good for you, too,” he said as he looked at her directly, no trace of shame on his face. “Because I need you to feel the way I do right now.”

— Helen Hoang

127. “It’s like pricking yourself with a needle. Do it once, and you’re okay. You can ignore that it even happened. Prick yourself repeatedly without giving yourself time to heal, and soon you’re injured and bleeding.”

— Helen Hoang

128. “She ached so badly to be held it felt like a sickness had invaded her muscles and bones.”

— Helen Hoang

129. “The harmless little lies that make people feel nice. They’re essential for getting along in society.”

— Helen Hoang

130. “So she could speak English. She just chose not to. With him.”

— Helen Hoang

131. “My heart works in a different way, but it’s yours. You’re my one.”

— Helen Hoang

132. “Smiles are real when they reach your eyes.”

— Helen Hoang

133. “He was ignoring everyone, including her, at this expensive wedding, so he could read a novel about alien demon things.”

— Helen Hoang

134. “I don’t like it when people have to act differently for me.”

— Helen Hoang

135. “Where did you go when you had nowhere?”

— Helen Hoang

136. “This goes two ways, Stella. You like the feel of me. I like the feel of you.”

— Helen Hoang

137. “A slow me is much better than a sick me.”

— Helen Hoang

138. “He got out of bed and pulled on his jeans, fully aware of her audience’s appreciative gaze. He felt a little ridiculous about it, but maybe he did it slowly. Maybe he flexed his abs and biceps as he zipped his fly and buttoned his pants. Because really, putting on pants required a lot of muscle.”

— Helen Hoang

139. “Perhaps this is what I’ve always needed without really knowing it, to love myself without shame and without reservation.”

— Helen Hoang

140. “When he finally found the strength to pull away, he settled her on her feet and went to toss the condom in the toilet.”

— Helen Hoang

141. “This was what happened when you kept secrets. People drew their own conclusions.”

— Helen Hoang