Few things are as bad as a guilty conscience.

As soon as I finish a book, I sell the paperback rights to different publishers and that's where I recoup my money.

I was a threat to a lot of women and to a lot of men. The women cannot forgive me if I remain single and also have a family. But I have a family as well and am raising them. A lot of women only stay in their marriages because of the children so seeing me on my own annoys them.

I believe it is important to speak to your readers in person... to enable people to have a whole picture of me; I have to both write and speak. I view my role as writer and also as oral communicator.

I like to be called a Nigerian rather than somebody from the Third World or the developing or whatever.

I came to England in 1962 as a very young bride, in my teens, hoping just to stay two years and go back.

But who made the law that we should not hope in our daughters? We women subscribe to that law more than anyone. Until we change all this, it is still a man's world, which women will always help to build.