Candice Carty-Williams > Quotes

“The road to recovery is not linear. It’s not straight. It’s a bumpy path, with lots of twists and turns. But you’re on the right track.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Is this what growing into an adult woman is—having to predict and accordingly arrange for the avoidance of sexual harassment?”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“I wished that well-meaning white liberals would think before they said things that they thought were perfectly innocent.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Being brave isn't the same as being okay," my mum said quietly.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Turns out the sadness that silence from the person you love brings can be temporarily erased by the dull thrill of attention from strangers.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Maybe if all ah we had learned to talk about our troubles, we wouldn’t carry so much on our shoulders all the way to the grave.” He turned to walk out, his stick hitting the floor with purpose. “Maybe we haffi learn from this new generation, Veronica.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“You know, those men: bike riding, knitted sweater? Pretends Facebook isn’t important to him, but it really is?” I was met with a blank stare, so carried on. “Craft beer, start-ups, sense of entitlement? Reads books by Alain de Botton, needs a girlfriend who doesn’t threaten his mediocrity?”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“That’s the thing about people who love to play devil’s advocate!’ I shouted. ‘There’s no emotional involvement in it for you, there’s nothing at stake!”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“It's not putting black lives on a pedestal, I don't even know what that means," I said, my heart beating fast. "It's saying that black lives, at this point, and historically, do not, and have not mattered, and that they should!"
I looked first at Gina, then around the room to see if anyone was going to back me up. Instead, I was met with what I'd been trying to pretend hadn't always been a room full of white not-quite-liberals whose opinions, like their money, had been inherited.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Before I got off the bus, I made an internal list of people who could touch my hair:

1. Me

2. A hairdresser

3. That's it, that's the whole list”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“My eyes must spend at least fifty per cent of any given day rolled to the back of my head.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“He truly wasn't very funny but:

1. Apart from Kyazike, who is ten times as funny as me, I don't find anyone as funny as me, even in this, the darkest period of my life.

2. Actually, no man is as funny as me or any woman I've ever met.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Instead, I was met with what I'd been trying to pretend hadn't always been a room full of white not-quite-liberals whose opinions, like their money, had been inherited.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Being brave isn’t the same as being okay.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Why are people always complaining about the dead period between Christmas and the New Year? It’s complete bliss.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“We all know heartbreak. We just have to learn to live with it.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“You said that I could be any type of black girl that I wanted to be.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“I looked at my three friends, the lights exploding in the sky and illuminating their beautiful faces. They all represented a different part of my life, had all come to me at different times; why they'd all stuck with me, I was constantly tying to work out.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Sleep paralysis is a strange thing. I'd had dozens of episodes at university when I'd take naps, and when I looked at it, read that's something about the brain being disrupted and waking up before the body, which is why you can't move when you're hallucinating that there's a faceless man climbing across the floor towards you.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Black Lives Matter does not diminish any lives other than ours. That’s not what it’s about. What we’re saying right now is that we are the ones who are suffering.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Actually, no man is as funny as me or any woman I’ve ever met.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“I think that’s enough to be getting on with. In challenging myself to do anything at all, I’ve already set myself up to fail. But in limiting the resolutions I can at least make the failure less disappointing.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“She handed the megaphone to a woman next to her and stepped down from the podium. The second woman climbed up and spoke: “Do you know what they want? They want us to riot , they want us to cause havoc, mayhem, they want us to burn ourselves to the ground. But you know what I say? It’s not a riot, it’s an uprising . And we will continue with our uprising until we get the justice we deserve.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Being brave isn't the same as being okay,” my mum said quietly.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Sex is important isn't it? It's the thing that stops you from just being friends with someone. Else we'd all marry our friends.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“I don't want to be this girl. Something must really be up with my head if I was turning into this girl.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“It's a family thing. It is an annoying and time-wasting thing.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Even though he didn’t really know his children, he loved them all the same. Each got twenty per cent of the love he had to offer. No more, no less.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, People Person

“You know what my uncle is like, he’s from a generation where they said the n-word quite a lot.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie

“Gemini men, they are takers. They will take every single thing from you, and they will drain you. They will never give to you, ever, because it’s not about you, it’s always about them. And they will leave you broken, in a heap on the floor.”
― Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie