Chris Abani

“Story is powerful. Story is fluid and it belongs to nobody.”

— Chris Abani

“as his mother told Grandma Marie, there are no words for some”

— Chris Abani

I think it's an aggregation of all of the small acts that are really transformative. I think a group of small acts…

— Chris Abani

“... it's the agents of our imagination who really shape who we are.”

— Chris Abani

“He too, it seemed, had come to believe that he could somehow escape history. That it was possible, and even desirable, to…

— Chris Abani

My mom taught me to read when I was two or three. When I was five I read and wrote well enough…

— Chris Abani

You know, you can steel your heart against any kind of trouble, any kind of horror. But the simple act of kindness…

— Chris Abani

Fiction is more dangerous than nonfiction because it can seduce better. I think we all know this, know that deeper truths can…

— Chris Abani

My grand uncle was a traditional priest, and he would always say to me as a kid, 'We stand in our own…

— Chris Abani

Unlike other books or TV shows or sometimes life, my narrative worlds are stripped of implicit moral centers. There is only what…

— Chris Abani

Nigerians are everywhere. There's an old joke, particularly about the Ibos, that when you finally land on Mars, you're going to find…

— Chris Abani

“Circuses are about entertainment and juggling and animals and all that shit. Sideshows are about freaks, about people and the limits of…

— Chris Abani

It takes me forever to actually finish something like a ten-page essay. But, when I do, I usually love what they are.…

— Chris Abani

I had amazing intellectual privilege as a kid. My mom taught me to read when I was two or three. When I…

— Chris Abani

If you want to know about Africa, read our literature - and not just 'Things Fall Apart,' because that would be like…

— Chris Abani

Since I hold no judgments against my characters, no matter how heinous they might seem, I present them as real people with…

— Chris Abani

If I dont get at least one e-mail every ten minutes, I feel unloved. Even junk mail makes me feel seen. Sad,…

— Chris Abani

Like most writers, I find the Web is a wonderful distraction. Who doesn't need that last minute research before writing?

— Chris Abani

“Thoughts of Abigail filled her world. By all accounts she had bee a tall, thin, woman, whose eyes held a power beyond…

— Chris Abani

Anything a man can do, I can fix.

— Chris Abani

You can count on Scandinavian literature for a certain kind of darkness, a modern mythic style.

— Chris Abani

I have to have three or four books going simultaneously. If I'm not impressed in the first 20 pages, I don't bother…

— Chris Abani

I think that most writers who are trying to write important and difficult books are in many ways putting their own humanity…

— Chris Abani

I have not spoken in three years: not since I left boot camp. It has been three years of a senseless war,…

— Chris Abani

When I was growing up in Nigeria - and I shouldn't say Nigeria, because that's too general, but in Afikpo, the Igbo…

— Chris Abani