At about the age of seven … I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading: All my characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather: how lovely it was that the sun had come out. This despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria; we didn’t have snow, we ate mangoes, and we never talked about the weather, because there was no need to.

You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.

At some point I was a HappyAfricanFeminist who does not hate men. And who likes lip gloss and who wears high heels for herself but not for men.

I am a strong believer in the ability of human beings to change for the better. I am a strong believer in trying to change what we are dissatisfied with.

I write from real life. I am an unrepentant eavesdropper and a collector of stories. I record bits of overheard dialogue.

You Americans, always peering under people's beds to look for communism.

Culture does not make people. People make culture.