Uzodinma Iweala : (8)

" I’ve got to keep on writing. That’s non-negotiable. At the same time, one has to look at the world and recognise that writing is not the only thing to be done – I want to have an effect on the world. " - Uzodinma Iweala

" I love playing with language and the rhythm of language – for some reason, this seems so much easier for me to do when I get to make things up than when writing nonfiction. " - Uzodinma Iweala

" It’s a beautiful thing, the desire to help a fellow human who is maybe in a rough spot. " - Uzodinma Iweala

" Lagos is sometimes emblematic of disorder. In traffic, drivers make their own rules. There is a constant war between our street hawkers and our various forms of law enforcement deployed to eradicate the ‘indiscipline’ of poverty. " - Uzodinma Iweala

" We are not living in the same world we were immediately after the Cold War, when there seemed to be a greater belief in the universality of human rights and there was enough prosperity to make us question why we had not committed more resources to upholding the values we claimed to hold most dear. " - Uzodinma Iweala

" I find the sort of unwitting European American outsider who wants to come to Africa to help is a very problematic construction. It’s problematic because you don’t want to tell people don’t aid, don’t help, when people feel a need to. " - Uzodinma Iweala

" I hear a good song and I start thinking, ‘Oh shoot. You know there’s a story that can be told to this,’ and whatnot. " - Uzodinma Iweala

" Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth. " - Uzodinma Iweala