Why did people ask "What is it about?" as if a novel had to be about only one thing.

I live half the year in Nigeria, the other half in the U.S. But home is Nigeria - it always will be. I consider myself a Nigerian who is comfortable in the world. I look at it through Nigerian eyes.

I have many problems in my life, but I don't think that identity is one of them.

There has always been a strange dissonance between the public and the private in Nigeria.

My characters are usually composites. I wish I could pretend that I make up all of these characters, but no. I steal from people. But people will say to me, "Oh, that's me!" and I'm thinking, no, that's not you!

I often make the mistake of thinking that something that is obvious to me is obvious to everyone else.

Our histories cling to us. We are shaped by where we come from.