Become familiar with your home, but know also about your neighbors. The young man who never went anywhere thinks his mother is the greatest cook.

Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality.

It has always been quite apparent to me that no important story can fail to tell us something of value to us.

It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the mark on the face that sets one people apart from their neighbors.

I believe in the complexity of the human story, and that there's no way you can tell that story in one way and say, 'this is it.' Always there will be someone who can tell it differently depending on where they are standing ... this is the way I think the world's stories should be told: from many different perspectives.

In my definition I am a protest writer, with restraint.

I have found that I work best when I am at home in Nigeria. But one learns to work in other places.