31 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes for You to Enjoy

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nigerian Writer

Born: Sep 15, 1977

About Been People Think Women You

Related authors: Ayn Rand Dr. Seuss H. L. Mencken Napoleon Hill Niccolo Machiavelli Thomas Mann Thomas Paine Voltaire

Some men feel threatened by the idea of feminism. This comes, I think, from the insecurity triggered by how boys are brought up, how their sense of self-worth is diminished if they are not 'naturally' in charge as men. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Insecurity Men Feminism Sense Think Diminished Charge Threatened Some Some Men Brought Idea Feel Boy How Self-Worth Up Naturally

I am a person who believes in asking questions, in not conforming for the sake of conforming. I am deeply dissatisfied - about so many things, about injustice, about the way the world works - and in some ways, my dissatisfaction drives my storytelling. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Injustice World Way Ways Some About Drives Am Sake Questions Person Conforming Storytelling Asking Asking Questions Who Many Works Believes Deeply Things Dissatisfaction Dissatisfied

It is easy to romanticize poverty, to see poor people as inherently lacking agency and will. It is easy to strip them of human dignity, to reduce them to objects of pity. This has never been clearer than in the view of Africa from the American media, in which we are shown poverty and conflicts without any context. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Dignity People Will Poverty Strip Easy See Objects Never Clearer Without Reduce Context Been Than American Any Lacking Human Africa Pity Conflicts Which Human Dignity Them Poor Agency Poor People View Inherently Shown Media

For me, feminism is a movement for which the end goal is to make itself no longer needed. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Me Feminism Longer Make Goal End Itself Movement Which Needed

In primary school in south-eastern Nigeria, I was taught that Hosni Mubarak was the president of Egypt. I learned the same thing in secondary school. In university, Mubarak was still president of Egypt. I came to assume, subconsciously, that he - and others like Paul Biya in Cameroon and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya - would never leave. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

School Same Thing Assume Secondary President Others Secondary School Libya Would Never He Primary Primary School Like Learned Still Leave Came Subconsciously Cameroon Same Egypt Taught Gaddafi Paul Mubarak Thing Nigeria University

Nobody just leaves medical school, especially given it's fiercely competitive to get in. But I had a sister who was a doctor, another who was a pharmacist, a brother who was an engineer. So my parents already had sensible children who would be able to make an actual living, and I think they felt comfortable sacrificing their one strange child. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Strange Doctor School Engineer Parents Sister Living Think Would Would-Be Brother Able Given Had Sacrificing Nobody Make Another Comfortable Felt Leaves Child Get Just Children Sensible Fiercely Who Actual Medical Medical School Pharmacist Competitive

'No Sweetness Here' is the kind of old-fashioned social realism I have always been drawn to in fiction, and it does what I think all good literature should: It entertains you. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Good You Think Drawn Kind Does Always Been Fiction Literature Realism Social Should Sweetness Old-Fashioned Here

Girls are socialised in ways that are harmful to their sense of self - to reduce themselves, to cater to the egos of men, to think of their bodies as repositories of shame. As adult women, many struggle to overcome, to unlearn, much of that social conditioning. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In America, I feel black with all of the rubbish that comes with it. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Black Rubbish Feel America

I like the U.S. and feel gratitude towards it. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Gratitude Feel Towards Like

I am a bit of a fundamentalist when it comes to black women's hair. Hair is hair - yet also about larger questions: self-acceptance, insecurity and what the world tells you is beautiful. For many black women, the idea of wearing their hair naturally is unbearable. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In particular I want to talk about natural black hair, and how it's not just hair. I mean, I'm interested in hair in sort of a very aesthetic way, just the beauty of hair, but also in a political way: what it says, what it means. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Each of my novels has come from a different place, and the processes are not always entirely conscious. I have lived off and on in America for a number of years and so have accumulated observations, found things interesting, been moved to tell stories about them. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Tell About Entirely Observations Come Always Been Years Off Accumulate America Moved Different Stories Place Processes Interesting Them Different Place Each Novels Lived Found Conscious Things Number

I have been writing since I was old enough to spell. I have never considered not writing. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Writing Old Enough Spell Considered Never Since Been Old Enough

I am drawn, as a reader, to detail-drenched stories about human lives affected as much by the internal as by the external, the kind of fiction that Jane Smiley nicely describes as 'first and foremost about how individuals fit, or don't fit, into their social worlds.' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

First Worlds Drawn Kind About Individuals Smiley Reader How Am Affected Foremost Fit Human Fiction Stories Jane Social Much Internal Nicely Lives External

I ask questions. I watch the world. And what I have discovered is that the parts of my fiction that people most tell me are 'unbelievable' are those that are most closely based on the real, those least diluted by my imagination. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Me People World Imagination Diluted Those Tell Unbelievable Most Parts Least Real Discovered Questions Closely Fiction Ask Based Watch

Perhaps it is time to debate culture. The common story is that in 'real' African culture, before it was tainted by the West, gender roles were rigid and women were contentedly oppressed. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Time Culture Women Debate Gender Before Rigid Tainted Perhaps Real Were West Oppressed Roles Common African Story

While writing 'Half of a Yellow Sun,' I enjoyed playing with minor things: inventing a train station in a town that has none, placing towns closer to each other than they are, changing the chronology of conquered cities. Yet I did not play with the central events of that time. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Time Writing Events Chronology Half Other Changing Sun Station Cities Minor Inventing Town Towns None Yellow Train Than Did Closer Central While Placing Each Conquered Play Enjoyed Things Playing

This idea of feminism as a party to which only a select few people get to come - this is why so many women, particularly women of colour, feel alienated from mainstream western academic feminism. Because don't we want it to be mainstream? Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Women People Party Feminism Few Alienated Only Select Colour Mainstream Idea Feel Come Academic Particularly Because Western Get Few People Want Which Many Why

I think that because human difference for so long, in all its various forms, has been the root of so much oppression, sometimes there's the impulse to say let's deny the difference, as though by wishing away the difference we can then wish away the oppression. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I think the history of western feminism is one that is fraught with racism, and I think it's important to acknowledge that and, at the same time, to say that feminism is not the western invention, that my great-grandmother in what is now south-western Nigeria is feminist. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Time History Racism Invention Important Feminism Think Say Fraught Feminist Western Same Same Time The History Of Acknowledge Now Nigeria

There is, for me, as a black woman, as an African woman, a sense of possibility in America that I don't feel when I'm in Europe. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Me Woman Black Sense Possibility Feel America African Europe

There can be an extremist idea of purity. It's so easy to fall afoul of the ridiculously high standard set there. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Fall Extremist High Easy High Standard Purity Idea Standard Ridiculously Set

Non-fiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience, is often as much about character and story and emotion as fiction is. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Character Experience Recollection Memoir About Emotion Particular Non-Fiction Personal Personal Experience Often Fiction Literary Story Much

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