When I began ‘All Our Names,’ I did so wanting to create parallel narratives between Africa in the nineteen-seventies and America during that same period. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
As a writer, it’s a great narrative tool to have that character who is slightly detached but at the same time observant of his reality, because I think that’s pretty much what being a writer is – being there, watching and internalizing. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
The Rwandan policy of putting the genocide behind them is incredibly effective in many ways. But it’s also incredibly frightening to think that this nation is being asked put this mass slaughter behind them. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
Ethnic divisions can definitely be exacerbated by a lack of natural resources, but those tensions become violent when people manipulate them for their own political gain. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
I told my parents I was going to be a doctor and then a lawyer, but I never believed it and never tried. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
History does influence our lives – every moment. We never sort of live our lives in a linear fashion. We always have these memories and these images from our past that sometimes we’re not even aware of, and they sort of shape who we are. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears’ is very much about America – it just happens to have African and Ethiopian characters, and in fact, it happens to have more characters who are not Ethiopian than who are. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, the color of my skin and my rather peculiar background as an Ethiopian immigrant delineated the border of my life and friendships. I learned quickly how to stand alone. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote