I had consumed a lot of American culture, but I was not quite prepared for the reality of American poverty.

I can write with authority only about what I know well, which means that I end up using surface details of my own life in my fiction.

There are many different ways to be poor in the world but increasingly there seems to be one single way to be rich.

For centuries, the world divided human beings into two groups and then proceeded to exclude and oppress one group. It is only fair that the solution to the problem acknowledge that.

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.

Being defiant can be a good thing sometimes," Aunty Ifeoma said. "Defiance is like marijuana - it is not a bad thing when it is used right.

Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.