“Talk to her about sex, and start early. It will probably be a bit awkward, but it is necessary.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“...parents unconsciously start very early to teach girls how to be, that baby girls are given less room and more rules and… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
My greatest vanity is my skin. It is the colour of gingerbread and, thanks to my mother's genes, smooth and mostly blemish-free. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“She wished, fleetingly, that her mother was not her mother, and for this she felt not guilt and sadness but a single… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“femelu could not understand this, her mother’s ability to tell herself stories about her reality that did not even resemble her reality” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Do it together. Remember in primary school we learned that a verb is a 'doing' word? Well, a father is as much… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Sometimes, mothers, so conditioned to be all and do all, are complicit in diminishing the role of fathers.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“We should not be asking whether a woman can "do it all" but how best to support parents in their dual duties… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I recently spoke at a university where a student told me it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“What if the parents, from the beginning, taught both children to cook Indomie? Cooking, by the way, is a useful and practical… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“I know this remarkable Nigerian woman, Angela, a single mother who was raising her child in the United States; her child did… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Eugene has to stop doing God's job. God is big enough to do his own job. If God will judge our father… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
My grandfather died in the war, my family went through the war, and it affected my parents in really profound ways. I've… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I have my father's lopsided mouth. When I smile, my lips slope to one side. My doctor sister calls it my cerebral… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“One day I said to them, Where is the God you worship? They said he was like Chukwu, that he was in… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“A young Nigerian woman once told me that she had for years behaved ‘like a boy’ – she liked football and was… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“She felt as if she had somehow failed him and herself by allowing his mother’s behavior to upset her. She should be… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“It felt strange to call them directly, to hear her father’s “Hello?” after the second ring, and when he heard her voice,… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Ojiugo wore orange lipstick and ripped jeans, spoke bluntly, and smoked in public, provoking vicious gossip and dislike from other girls, not… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“If the justification for controlling women's bodies were about women themselves, then it would be understandable. If, for example, the reason was… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Ifemelu bristled at Chetachi’s goading. Still, it was her mother’s fault, to so eagerly tell the neighbors her mentor story. She should… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“So, do you plan to go to Aokpe?” Father Amadi asked. “I was not really planning to. But I suppose we will… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Be a full person. Motherhood is a glorious gift, but do not define yourself solely by motherhood. Be a full person. Your… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“What I’ve noticed being here is that many English people are in awe of America but also deeply resent it,” Obinze added. “Perfectly true,”… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
If you followed the media you'd think that everybody in Africa was starving to death, and that's not the case; so it's important to… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
“Because human beings lived then in a world in which physical strength was the most important attribute for survival; the physically stronger person was… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
To return to the books of my childhood is to yield to the strain of nostalgia that is curious about the self I once… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
I think white women need to wake up and say, 'Not all women are white,' three times in front of the mirror. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are. If we have sons, we don't mind knowing about… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
“Alexa, and the other guests, and perhaps even Georgina, all understood the fleeing from war, from the kind of poverty that crushed human souls,… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
“It was not as if he did not know what living in Lagos could do to a woman married to a young and wealthy… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
“They have the kinds of things we can eat.' An unease crept up on Ifemelu. She was comfortable here, and she wished she were… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
If I were not African, I wonder whether it would be clear to me that Africa is a place where the people do not… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
“But race is not biology; race is sociology. Race is not genotype; race is phenotype. Race matters because of racism. And racism is absurd… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
I’m very feminist in the way I look at the world, and that worldview must somehow be part of my work. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
Perhaps it is time to debate culture. The common story is that in 'real' African culture, before it was tainted by the West, gender… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share
