Uzodinma Iweala Quotes
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I think the more complex your idea of who someone is or who a particular group is, the less able you are to separate 'we' and 'outside' or 'us and them.' I think that that's something that we really, really need to pay attention to.
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Reading 'Search Sweet Country' is like reading a dream, and indeed, at times, it feels like the magical landscapes of writers like the Nigerian Ben Okri or the Mozambican Mia Couto.
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It's true that people will take advantage of you in Nigeria, but this happens everywhere in the world.
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U.N.-orchestrated gatherings are typically the death of all spontaneity and innovation.
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Sensationalism only works for so long. Think of something like the Kony 2012 campaign. Its sensationalized, viral language got people all hot and bothered, but at the end of the day, there was so much it got wrong about the situation, and that did more damage to their cause than what they got right.
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It's a beautiful thing, the desire to help a fellow human who is maybe in a rough spot.
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I hear a good song and I start thinking, 'Oh shoot. You know there's a story that can be told to this,' and whatnot.
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It takes time for people to understand how, as an individual, I can have an impact on the way that society works.
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Anybody who tells you they're not scared when starting a new book project is a very good liar.
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We are not living in the same world we were immediately after the Cold War, when there seemed to be a greater belief in the universality of human rights and there was enough prosperity to make us question why we had not committed more resources to upholding the values we claimed to hold most dear.
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There are skills you pick up on in a clinical environment in terms of how to ask questions, what to look for, how to listen that serve one well when trying to write.
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War in Africa is hardly a new phenomenon, nor are voices telling its stories of terror and triumph. Yet some of the continent's most devastating conflicts - and the literature born from the experiences of their survivors - have often gone unnoticed in the West.
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In general, Barack Hussein Obama brings us face to face with the discomfort our society feels with this idea of difference.
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Our racial past and future is something that we Americans must address.
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Medicine has an immediate impact, the ability to do good. Writing is such a solitary activity.
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European authors often write books about the rest of the world that profess a vision of shared humanity but fall far short, casting the other as exotic or dangerous.
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As Americans, I think we're a very entitled bunch.
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'Beasts of No Nation' began when I read an article about child soldiers in Sierra Leone during my final year of high school.
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I've been writing since I was really young.
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The first time I ever cast a vote in my 1992 Blessed Sacrament School poll, I voted for Ross Perot because - Ross Perot.
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Everybody has an equal right to be on this earth and to be happy on this earth and to achieve on this earth. That's kind of the way that I would like to try and go about living.
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I would say, number one, don't worry about getting published. Just write. Number two, just write. Three is make sure you read.
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I suppose I'm pulled towards fiction because I really like the freedom it gives me.
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Sometimes you just wanna go out, see your action movie, be done with it, come home. You know, and, like, you see 'The Matrix' or whatever, you see whatever film it is, and you're like, 'Oh cool,' whatever.