Americans think African writers will write about the exotic, about wildlife, poverty, maybe AIDS. They come to Africa and African books with certain expectations.

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

Never ever accept 'Because You Are A Woman' as a reason for doing or not doing anything.

How easy it was to lie to strangers, to create with strangers the versions of our lives we imagined.

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

The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be, rather than recognising how we are.

When I'm in a good mood I like to cook. But I don't like saying it in public because I find myself being resentful of the idea; "Now you will make a good wife. You can cook, right?" So when people ask me I go, "No, I don't like cooking!"