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I don't know if I want to be a writer.
Uzodinma Iweala -
I feel like it's not Africans who are afraid of China's rise in Africa. It's the West that's afraid of China's rise in Africa.
Uzodinma Iweala
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When somebody says that six million people died in the Holocaust, there is nobody in the world who can understand that. It's only through story, reading books by Elie Wiesel or Primo Levi, that you really begin to understand the trauma and how horrible it actually was.
Uzodinma Iweala -
The first time I ever cast a vote in my 1992 Blessed Sacrament School poll, I voted for Ross Perot because - Ross Perot.
Uzodinma Iweala -
In general, Barack Hussein Obama brings us face to face with the discomfort our society feels with this idea of difference.
Uzodinma Iweala -
It takes time for people to understand how, as an individual, I can have an impact on the way that society works.
Uzodinma Iweala -
I've had great writing teachers and mentors and great success with my first book.
Uzodinma Iweala -
It's true that people will take advantage of you in Nigeria, but this happens everywhere in the world.
Uzodinma Iweala
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Anybody who tells you they're not scared when starting a new book project is a very good liar.
Uzodinma Iweala -
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.
Uzodinma Iweala -
I would say, number one, don't worry about getting published. Just write. Number two, just write. Three is make sure you read.
Uzodinma Iweala -
I fundamentally believe that no one can teach you how to write - finding out how to write a story is part of the process of creating a story - but you can really learn through exposure to different writing, to different art forms, to different modes of storytelling, and with mentors who are able to get you to step outside your comfort zone.
Uzodinma Iweala -
Memoir is a difficult literary form to pull off when dealing with discrete and poignant moments in a life, even harder when seeking to narrate over 80 years of existence.
Uzodinma Iweala -
Medicine has an immediate impact, the ability to do good. Writing is such a solitary activity.
Uzodinma Iweala
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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.
Uzodinma Iweala -
As Americans, I think we're a very entitled bunch.
Uzodinma Iweala -
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.
Uzodinma Iweala -
The denial with which many African leaders and communities greeted the appearance of HIV and AIDS across the continent in the 1990s is now considered a tragic mistake rather than a purposeful pushback against lingering colonial prejudice.
Uzodinma Iweala -
Our racial past and future is something that we Americans must address.
Uzodinma Iweala -
I've been writing since I was really young.
Uzodinma Iweala
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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.
Uzodinma Iweala -
'Beasts of No Nation' began when I read an article about child soldiers in Sierra Leone during my final year of high school.
Uzodinma Iweala -
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.
Uzodinma Iweala -
We grew up going to church, and I believe in God. I don't know that I have the ability to define what or who or how God is. You know, I think that religion kind of messes people up in that regard. That's just my own personal philosophy.
Uzodinma Iweala