Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nobody just leaves medical school, especially given it's fiercely competitive to get in. But I had a sister who was a doctor, another who was a pharmacist, a brother who was an engineer. So my parents already had sensible children who would be able to make an actual living, and I think they felt comfortable sacrificing their one strange child.

Girls are socialised in ways that are harmful to their sense of self — to reduce themselves, to cater to the egos of men, to think of their bodies as repositories of shame. As adult women, many struggle to overcome, to unlearn, much of that social conditioning.

I think white women need to wake up and say, 'Not all women are white', three times in front of the mirror.

Some people ask, 'Why the word 'feminist'? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?' Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general — but to choose to use the vague expression 'human rights' is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender.

Lasting love has to be built on mutual regard and respect. It is about seeing the other person. I am very interested in relationships and, when I watch couples, sometimes I can sense a blindness has set in. They have stopped seeing each other. It is not easy to see another person.

I am a person who believes in asking questions, in not conforming for the sake of conforming. I am deeply dissatisfied — about so many things, about injustice, about the way the world works — and in some ways, my dissatisfaction drives my storytelling.

I live half the year in Nigeria, the other half in the U.S. But home is Nigeria — it always will be. I consider myself a Nigerian who is comfortable in the world. I look at it through Nigerian eyes.

Evil is tolerable if purged of coarseness.