As for feminism, I am a womanist more than I'm a feminist.

I have much more power and protection than Salman Rushdie, because I'm an American citizen, but yes, I live in terrible fear for my life and for the lives of my children. My whole family has been threatened, my adoptive parents had to sell their house and move out of Washington, D.C. because of death threats caused by my work and activism.

I learned English by watching soaps as a kid, and since I don't have any formal education and can't teach at the universities like other literary writers do.

The press doesn't like me, because I am a weirdo to them, so they do everything to create their own fictional Kola Boof.

I have never turned a trick in my life, and I just resent the American definitions of ’sex slave’ and ’prostitute’ so much. I was a mistress!

When I couldn't speak English, I loved silent films circa 1914-1929, Abel Gance being my favorite director.

I wrote about my life just as I remembered it. I named names and it's very detailed. Hundreds of Sudanese refugees and people from Africa say that my journey is very similar to theirs.