Richard exhaled. It was like somebody sprinkling pepper on his wound: Thousands of Biafrans were dead, and this man wanted to know… — 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
Successful fiction does not need to be validated by 'real life'; I cringe whenever a writer is asked how much of a… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
Creative writing programmes are not very necessary. They just exist so that people like us can make a living. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
Because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye … I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I write from real life. I am an unrepentant eavesdropper and a collector of stories. I record bits of overheard dialogue. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I had people read it early on and, you know, well-meaning people said to me, you should take out the blogs. I… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
When the writing is going well, I'm obsessive. I don't shower, I don't take phone calls, I hardly respond to text messages,… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I think my first general rule is that most of my experiences are not that interesting. It's usually other people's experiences. It's… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I have been writing since I was old enough to spell. I have never considered not writing. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
While writing 'Half of a Yellow Sun,' I enjoyed playing with minor things: inventing a train station in a town that has… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Are you kidding me?' Shan asked, slightly drunk, slightly dramatic, and now sitting yoga style on the floor. 'You can't write an… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I think it's important to humanize history; fiction can help us remember. A lot of books I've read in the past have… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I didn't want to be apologetic about my love story, and I think to be willing to write about love you have… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I think human beings exist in a social world. I write realistic fiction, and so it isn't that surprising that the social… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I don't believe that art and politics or social issues must be separated. In writing about marriage, for example, money can be… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
I can write with authority only about what I know well, which means that I end up using surface details of my… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
Americans think African writers will write about the exotic, about wildlife, poverty, maybe AIDS. They come to Africa and African books with… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
If the government doesn't fund education, which they often don't, students are going to stay home and not go to school. It… — 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
