Top 35 Louise O'Neill Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “And then they blame us, as men have always blamed women, for prompting their lust, for fuelling their insatiable greed for something they cannot have.”

— Louise O'Neill

2. “They are all innocent until proven guilty. But not me. I am a liar until I am proven honest.”

— Louise O'Neill

3. “Los hombres inseguros suelen sentirse amenazados por las mujeres poderosas.”

— Louise O'Neill

4. “I don’t know how people pretend to be something they’re not; it takes so much effort. That was always my problem, ever since I was your age. I didn’t care about what people thought of me. I only wanted to be true to myself.”

— Louise O'Neill

5. “I’m a good girl. I am pretty. I am always happy-go-lucky.”

— Louise O'Neill

6. “My body is not my own any more. They have stamped their names all over it.”

— Louise O'Neill

7. “I’m beginning to wonder that if, when we call a woman crazy, we should take a look at the man by her side, and guess at what he has done to drive her to insanity.”

— Louise O'Neill

8. “My name is Ceto,” she snaps, pushing herself out of the chair until she towers above me. “It is your father who has insisted on calling me a ‘witch’. That is simply a term that men give women who are not afraid of them, women who refuse to do as they are told.”

— Louise O'Neill

9. “We are women. And women are warriors, after all.”

— Louise O'Neill

10. “All eves are created to be perfect but, over time, they seem to develop flaws. Comparing yourself to your sisters is a useful way of identifying these flaws, but you must then take the necessary steps to improve yourself. There is always room for Improvement.”

— Louise O'Neill

11. “All he is concerned with is that I am the most beautiful daughter of the Sea King. I am a prize to be won, and Zale likes the taste of victory”.”

— Louise O'Neill

12. “I want you to remember always how powerful you are. Never allow anyone to take that away from you, or try and make you feel small.”

— Louise O'Neill

13. “When did we all become fluent in this language that none of us wanted to learn?”

— Louise O'Neill

14. “How is it that two eyes, a nose and a mouth can be positioned in such varying ways that it makes one person beautiful, and another person not?”

— Louise O'Neill

15. “I am not falling apart. I am being ripped at the seams, my insides torn out until I am hollow.”

— Louise O'Neill

16. “I was born in the water and I was born of the water.”

— Louise O'Neill

17. “It’s true, I am skinny. My bones jostle underneath my skin, fighting to be the first one to pierce my flesh.”

— Louise O'Neill

18. “I cannot remember, so those photos and those comments have become my memories.”

— Louise O'Neill

19. “He takes a glass from a passing waiter, but doesn’t thank him. He rarely thanks the staff, I’ve observed. All the little things that I have ignored about this man, in order to make the narrative of true love and destiny fit. I tried to make him as perfect as I needed him to be.”

— Louise O'Neill

20. “I shall be passed from one man to the next, ownership tranferred with ease of a handshake and I will be expected to smile as the deal is done.”

— Louise O'Neill

21. “I can’ because the Sea King will be angry if we do not do as he wishes. He will not stand for female insubordination, today of all days.”

— Louise O'Neill

22. “That which we take for granted can so easily be taken away from us, if we do not remain vigilant.”

— Louise O'Neill

23. “It is always there, the sun, even when we cannot see it.”

— Louise O'Neill

24. “No one ever calls her husband “unnatural” for abandonning his children; no, instead they whisper that Lorelai must have failed to satisfy him”.”

— Louise O'Neill

25. “I like it better when my room is pitch black, when the dark is so thick it swallows me up and I feel as if I could drown in it.”

— Louise O'Neill

26. “Is it possible to want everything to change and nothing to change, all at the same time?”

— Louise O'Neill

27. “We have been told since we were mer-children that extra-weight is revolting.”

— Louise O'Neill

28. “I can’t even remember the first time I saw a porno. I presume I must have been shocked, frightened even, but after watching another and another and another they sort of blend into nothingness.”

— Louise O'Neill

29. “I dream of things I know nothing about.”

— Louise O'Neill

30. “It is your father who has insisted on calling me a ‘witch’. That’s is simply a term that men give women who are not afraid of them, women who refuse to do as they are told.”

— Louise O'Neill

31. “I do the splits perfectly in PE. I lose half a pound in two days. I get the spinach and pig-meat frittata from the lo-carb section for lunch. And no-one else knows. I mentally construct a MyFace status, polishing the memories carefully until they shine. The need to record my life is as fundamental as my need to breathe. Without MyFace, I’m floating. I have nothing to anchor me down, to prove I exist.”

— Louise O'Neill

32. “If I cannot speak, I suddenly realize, then I can change nothing.”

— Louise O'Neill

33. “We have never had a class on how to say no to men while simultaneously never saying no to them.”

— Louise O'Neill

34. “They are fascinated by us, and terrified by us as well. Do not underestimate that fear, and what they might do with it. Some men are very afraid of women, my child. And those men long for us the most, and are the most dangerous when they do not get what they want.”

— Louise O'Neill

35. “Every maid in court has been told that we must maintain a certain weight for the aesthetic preference of the Sea King and his mer-men.”

— Louise O'Neill

36. “She’s beautiful, but it’s a faded beauty now, as if she’s been washed too many times.”

— Louise O'Neill

37. “I stare at myself in my mirrors, imagining taking a grater to my skin, peeling off the top layer. My bones might be white enough.”

— Louise O'Neill

38. “I am afraid every time I open my computer or look at my phone. I know I shouldn’t look. Of course, I shouldn’t look. I am afraid of looking but I am afraid no to look too. I am afraid all the time.”

— Louise O'Neill