That her relationship with him was like being content in a house but always sitting by the window and looking out

Of course I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in.

I like the U.S. and feel gratitude towards it.

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

Racism should never have happened and so you don't get a cookie for reducing it.

If I were not African, I wonder whether it would be clear to me that Africa is a place where the people do not need limp gifts of fish but sturdy fishing rods and fair access to the pond. I wonder whether I would realize that while African nations have a failure of leadership, they also have dynamic people with agency and voices.