Leena Norms > Quotes

“Mum is a person who teaches you that Mum is not a person at all, but a note slipped under a door that says, Everyone deserves this.”
― Leena Norms, Bargain Bin Rom-Com

“Every main character has an enemy with a face and a body that they can chase or kill or confront or appease; when unfortunately your enemies are probably intangible and structural and a tiny speck of them is in everyone you know.”
― Leena Norms

“Ask me if at some point I'll get a husband just because I've lost all my best friends to theirs. Ask me if I used to get jealous watching the boys play football so freely on the tarmac. Ask me if I only picked up a book in the first place so I could raise it across my gaze to block out all the ways I wasn't allowed to run. Ask me if there are people I've lost who I'm still holding auditions to replace, whom I would give up a career to help die, if I ever lose hope or if I hang it on a keychain by the door at night so I can get to it in an emergency.”
― Leena Norms, Bargain Bin Rom-Com

“Studies have shown that, especially after the sort of disrupted night of sleep that makes you turn to coffee immediately after you rise, coffee on an empty stomach followed by breakfast decreases our chance of being able to metabolise the glucose in our food by around 50 per cent. When we can’t process glucose properly, it ends up being released into our blood all at once, rather than slowly being released by our liver over a longer period of time.”
― Leena Norms, Half-Arse Human: How to Live Better Without Burning Out

“(did you know that 80 per cent of clothing returns are never resold by brands? It’s cheaper to bin them than use employee time to check they’re not damaged).”
― Leena Norms, Half-Arse Human: How to Live Better Without Burning Out

“According to research at the University of Surrey, assisted by the BBC, reheated pasta, potato and other starchy carbs are much better for you once they’ve cooled down, and even more so when they’re reheated. Whilst your blood sugars can spike after a hot, fresh meal, the transformed starch you get from leftovers can ease those spikes, give you all the benefits of fibre, generally improves digestion, leaves beneficial bacteria in your gut … all without you having to make any change to what you’re eating.”
― Leena Norms, Half-Arse Human: How to Live Better Without Burning Out

“(1 in 20 women in Sierra Leone has a lifetime risk of death related to pregnancy or childbirth, which is among the highest rate in the world),”
― Leena Norms, Half-Arse Human: How to Live Better Without Burning Out

“25 per cent of people surveyed had considered resigning due to mental pressure at work, 57 per cent said they drink after the workday to cope, and 14 per cent said they drink during it.”
― Leena Norms, Half-Arse Human: How to Live Better Without Burning Out

“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’* sounds wonderful, but I bet you’ve never squinted to read the small print: * ‘Apply to do what you love and end up spending most of your day doing stuff you don’t love but is tangentially connected to the thing that you once loved, and also feel disheartened at the thought that you now know the inner workings of the industry that upholds the thing you once loved and can see all the ways the thing is being ruined by soggy systems and rotten rails.”
― Leena Norms, Half-Arse Human: How to Live Better Without Burning Out