Top 140 Helen Hoang Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “He kissed her like she was his whole world, and if she weren’t already kneeling, she would have collapsed to the floor.”

— Helen Hoang

102. “She ached so badly to be held it felt like a sickness had invaded her muscles and bones. As usual, her own arms provided little comfort.”

— Helen Hoang

103. “People like me better when I make them feel good about themselves.”

— Helen Hoang

104. “I wasn’t loneliness if it could be eradicated with work or a Netflix marathon or a good book. Real loneliness would stick with you all the time. Real loneliness would hurt you nonstop.”

— Helen Hoang

105. “This yearning for her, this craving, it’s sunk so deep into me that it’s part of me now. This is how Quan is now. He’s crazy about this one girl.”

— Helen Hoang

106. “He matters more to me than the voices in my head.”

— Helen Hoang

107. “I have a feeling she loves symmetry like cats love catnip.”

— Helen Hoang

108. “It’s economics.”

— Helen Hoang

109. “What happened when you gave someone an opportunity?”

— Helen Hoang

110. “How did you change your life when you were trapped like this? Her history didn’t define her. Her origins didn’t define her. At least, they shouldn’t. She could be more, if she had a chance.”

— Helen Hoang

111. “Happy people don’t wear all black.”

— Helen Hoang

112. “Most alive when you might die.”

— Helen Hoang

113. “You want her to be with someone driven and career-focused, someone who can take care of her. You don’t seem to realize she’s driven enough on her own, and she doesn’t need someone to take care of her.”

— Helen Hoang

114. “Toward that end, she’d spent the day devising conversation trees in her head so she could minimize the need for social improvising, which often ended badly for her. If she was asked what she did, she had a quick explanation and follow-up questions ready.”

— Helen Hoang

115. “She was so beautiful she made his chest hurt.”

— Helen Hoang

116. “Do you always say exactly what you’re thinking?” “Either that or I don’t talk.”

— Helen Hoang

117. “It wasn’t loneliness if it could be eradicated with work or a Netflix marathon or a good book.”

— Helen Hoang

118. “I have to think really hard when I talk. Otherwise I blurt out rude things, and I alienate everyone.”

— Helen Hoang

119. “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

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

— Helen Hoang

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

— Helen Hoang

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

— Helen Hoang

123. “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

124. “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

125. “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

126. “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

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

— Helen Hoang

128. “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

129. “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

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

— Helen Hoang

131. “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

132. “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

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

— Helen Hoang

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

— Helen Hoang

135. “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

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

— Helen Hoang

137. “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

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

— Helen Hoang

139. “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

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

— Helen Hoang

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

— Helen Hoang