I'm not sure where I'm from! I was born in London. My father's from Ghana but lives in Saudi Arabia. My mother's Nigerian but lives in Ghana. I grew up in Boston.

How can I come from a nation? How can a human being come from a concept?

As a young woman, I had been seeking experience, knowledge, truth, the stuff writers need in their work, but when the artist actually kicked in, I came to understand that in this romantic relationship I was not free to be myself, or to find myself, in order to begin the true work I needed to do.

So often, literature about African people is conflated with literature about African politics, as if the state were somehow of greater import or interest than the individual.

The writer presents himself to the blank page not with an open passport but an open heart.

I write essays to clear my mind. I write fiction to open my heart.

As a writer, one is obliged to release her words, to let them live in the world on their own.