Each time he suggested they get married, she said no. They were too happy, precariously so, and she wanted to guard that bond; she feared that marriage would flatten it into a prosaic partnership.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Each time they ignore me, I feel invisible. I want to tell them that I am just as human as the man, just as worthy of acknowledgement. These are the little things, but sometimes it is the little things that sting the most.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Female thought about the expression "sweet girl." Sweet girl meant that, for a long time, Don had molded Raymundo into a malleable shape, or that she had allowed him to think he had.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Female would also come to learn that, for Kimberly, the poor were blameless. Poverty was a gleaming thing; she could not conceive of poor people being vicious or nasty because their poverty had canonized them, and the greatest saints were the foreign poor.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Femelu could not understand this, her mother’s ability to tell herself stories about her reality that did not even resemble her reality

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Feminism and femininity are not mutually exclusive. It is misogynistic to suggest that they are. Sadly, women have learned to be ashamed and apologetic about pursuits that are seen as traditionally female, such as fashion and makeup. But our society does not expect men to feel ashamed of pursuits considered generally male - sports cars, certain professional sports. In the same way, men's grooming is never suspect in the way women's grooming is - a well-dressed man does not worry that, because he is dressed well, certain assumptions might be made about his intelligence, his ability, or his seriousness. A woman, on the other hand, is always aware of how a bright lipstick or a carefully-put-together outfit might very well make others assume her to be frivolous.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Foreign behavior? What the fuck are you talking about? Foreign behavior? Have you read Things Fall Apart? Female asked, wishing she had not told Raymundo about Dike. She was angrier with Raymundo than she had ever been, yet she knew that Raymundo meant well, and had said what many other Nigerians would say, which was why she had not told anyone else about Dike's suicide attempt since she came back.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change. But I am also hopeful, because I believe deeply in the ability of human beings to remake themselves for the better.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Gender is not an easy conversation to have. It makes people uncomfortable, sometimes even irritable. Both men and women are resistant to talk about gender, or are quick to dismiss the problems of gender. Because thinking of changing the status quo is always uncomfortable.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Gender matters everywhere in the world. And I would like today to ask what we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: We must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie