Greatness depends on where you are coming from.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

He lived in London indeed but invisibly, his existence like an erased pencil sketch

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

He thought about the next time he would laugh with her and then the next. He found himself often thinking about the future, even before the present was over.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

His optimism blinded her. He was full of plans. "I have an idea!" he said often. She imagined him as a child surrounded by too many brightly colored toys, always being encouraged to carry out "projects", always being told that his mundane ideas were wonderful.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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."" We say to girls 'You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man. If you are the breadwinner in your relationship with a man, pretend you are not, especially in public, otherwise you will emasculate him.'" "Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life's choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Marriage can be a good thing, a source of joy, love and mutual support. But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage, yet we don't teach boys to do the same?"" We are all social beings. We internalize ideas from our socialization.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I am just as human as the man.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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

I don't want to be a sweetheart. I want to be the fucking love of your life," Curt said with a force that startled her.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

If I had not grown up in Nigeria- and if all I knew of Africa were of popular images- I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals and incomprehensible people fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and aids-unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind white foreigner.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

If I were not African, I wonder whether it would be clear to me that Africa is a place where the people do not need limp gifts of fish but sturdy fishing rods and fair access to the pond. I wonder whether I would realize that while African nations have a failure of leadership, they also have dynamic people with agency and voices.

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie