“She was too afraid to hope, now that it seemed possible.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“There was something immodest about her modesty: it announced itself.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“There was a helplessness to his joy, the same kind of helplessness as in that woman’s despair.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“layer after layer of discontent had settled in her, and formed a mass that now propelled her.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“She did not tell him this, because it would hurt him to know she had felt that way for a while, that… — chimamanda ngozi adichie Copy Share Image
“Her bladder felt painfully, solidly full, as though it would burst and release not urine but the garbled prayers she was muttering.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“...there was an impatience in her tone, almost an accusation, as she added that academics were not intellectuals; they were not curious,… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“But she had not had a bold epiphany and there was no cause; it was simply that layer after layer of discontent… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“There was something wrong with her. She did not know what it was but there was something wrong with her. A hunger,… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“whenever she felt besieged by doubts, she would think of herself as standing valiantly alone, as almost heroic, so as to squash… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“[ifemelu] did not think so, but she was no longer sure. She was no longer sure what was new in Lagos and… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
Then she wished, more rationally, that she could love him without needing him. Need gave him power without his trying; need was… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“She liked that he wore their relationship so boldly, like a brightly colored shirt. Sometimes she worried that she was too happy.… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Readers like SapphicDerrida, who reeled off statistics and used words like “reify” in their comments, made Ifemelu nervous, eager to be fresh… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
He was making her feel small and absurdly petulant and, worse yet, she suspected he was right. She always suspected he was… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Before, she would have said, "I know," that peculiar American expression that professed agreement rather than knowledge” — 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image