It's hard sometimes to remember why we do anything in the first place. It's nice to think there's a purpose, or even a real decision that turns everything in one direction, but that's not always true, is it? We just… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
It is always the first and last steps that are the hardest to take. We walk away and try not to turn back, or we stand just outside the gates, terrified to find what's waiting for us now that we've… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
You see, at the beginning we weren't fighters. We weren't yellers or throwers, even if we eventually came to be. It would take time… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
I told my parents I was going to be a doctor and then a lawyer, but I never believed it and never tried. — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
“You will never disappear," I said. "Even if it may feel like you have at some point. We're going to remain a part of… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
The fact that I have always been deeply invested in politics, and African politics in particular, inevitably played a role in my first novel… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
Writers, especially those of us with roots in other countries, are rarely left to ourselves. We are asked to declare our allegiances, or they… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
Personally, its a comfort and happiness to know that my work is taken seriously and is not marginalised and put in a box of… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
“If the last thing a man has to hold on to is his sense of pride and accompanying dignity, then more likely than not… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
“Have you seen a hungry man with a gun? Of course not. Such things don't exist. It's like saying, have you ever seen a… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
There are those who wake up each morning to conquer the day, and then there are those of us who wake up only because… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
“She always thought Americans were too territorial. 'All those fences and flags,' she had once said, seeing very little difference between the two.” — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
Ethnic divisions can definitely be exacerbated by a lack of natural resources, but those tensions become violent when people manipulate them for their own… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
“I remember another aphorism of my father's, one that he used to say whenever we passed someone pissing openly in the street: add color… — Dinaw Mengestu Copy Share Image
