Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.

She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He made her like herself. With him, she was at ease; her skin felt as though it was her right size.. It seemed so natural, to talk to him about odd things. She had never done that before. The trust, so sudden and yet so complete, and the intimacy, frightened her.. But now she could think only of all the things she yet wanted to tell him, wanted to do with him.

Show a people as one thing, only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.

Your life belongs to you and you alone.

Greatness depends on where you are coming from.

If I had not grown up in Nigeria- and if all I knew of Africa were of popular images- I too would think that africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals and incomprehensible people fighting sensless wars, dying of poverty and aids- unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind white foreigner.

She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He made her like herself.