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.

I consider myself West African, among other cultural identities, and a writer, among other creative ones.

I wrote fiction during my entire childhood, from age 4 to 18, and started writing plays when I went to Yale and Oxford.

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.

The thing that comes most frequently to me on yoga retreats is excruciating pain in my hips.

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

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