The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things.
Chris AbaniYou can count on Scandinavian literature for a certain kind of darkness, a modern mythic style.
Chris AbaniYour anatomy is a mystery that nobody bothers explaining to us. Even when we think we have mastered one woman's body, every body is different.
Chris AbaniMy friend Ronald Gottesman says...that the cause of all our trouble is the belief in an essential, pure identity: religious, ethnic, historical, ideological.
Chris AbaniIf you want to know about Africa, read our literature - and not just 'Things Fall Apart,' because that would be like saying, 'I've read 'Gone with the Wind' and so I know everything about America.'
Chris AbaniSince I hold no judgments against my characters, no matter how heinous they might seem, I present them as real people with their own moral centers. We might feel those moral centers are mis-calibrated, but they are there and are the rudders that propel them. This makes reading my work a visceral roller coaster, 'cause the reader must embark on the journey of the protagonist equipped only with his or her own moral center.
Chris Abani