The truth, and nothing but the truth, is that dawn begins with a wrestling match with my soul and a systematic rejection of all the other useful possibilities a day offers. I make obeisance to the story, its characters, and the muse with burnt offerings.

Even if you're in charge of the grand story there's still memory. The other stories do not go away.

I get turned on by the idea of an essence - finding the essence of the thing.

Kenya is a mercurial character. I feel the country has a presence that can turn on its people in a very violent way.

I don't think Kenya is the only country that tries to induce amnesia - it seems to be a global phenomenon. But offenses do not die. They do not disappear.

For Kenya: we have a chance to start again each time we meet one another. The ghosts do not need to define the future.

One day, I was running to the river. Along the way there was the most exquisite butterfly, a tiny little thing, on the pavement. I kind of jumped over it. And then two days later I woke up in the middle of the night with a character running, jumping over butterflies on the streets of Nairobi. After that, I followed the story. The story wrote itself.