It takes me forever to actually finish something like a ten-page essay. But, when I do, I usually love what they are. It’s a complicated relationship. Chris Abani Read Quote
Every successful artist comes from a family – parents or siblings or both – who, although equally gifted, chose not to pursue the treacherous and difficult path of the artist. Chris Abani Read Quote
The Igbo used to say that they built their own gods. They would come together as a community, and they would express a wish. And their wish would then be brought to a priest, who would find a ritual object, and the appropriate sacrifices would be made, and the shrine would be built for the god. Chris Abani Read Quote
In this time of the Internet and nonfiction, to be on an actual bookshelf in an actual bookstore is exciting in itself. Chris Abani Read Quote
My grand uncle was a traditional priest, and he would always say to me as a kid, ‘We stand in our own light,’ which essentially for him meant we were entirely responsible for a lot of what happens to us and for the ways in which our lives play out. Chris Abani Read Quote
African narratives in the West, they proliferate. I really don’t care anymore. I’m more interested in the stories we tell about ourselves – how, as a writer, I find that African writers have always been the curators of our humanity on this continent. Chris Abani Read Quote
Like most writers, I find the Web is a wonderful distraction. Who doesn’t need that last minute research before writing? Chris Abani Read Quote
