I read recently that the problem with stereotypes isn't that they are inaccurate, but that they're incomplete. And this captures perfectly what I think about contemporary African literature. The problem isn't that it's inaccurate, it's that it's incomplete.

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.

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.

The big ideas always come in flashes. I don't really craft stories that much. I genuinely don't know where these people come from and I've often wondered if writing is just a socially acceptable form of madness.

Sight is subjective. We learned that in class.

As a novelist, I ask of myself only that I tell the truth and that I tell it beautifully.

I wouldn't mind my book being called an African novel if it didn't invite lazy readings.