14 quotes
My laugh is far away inside, like the morning car not starting when the key turns.
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir (2011)
Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat.
How to Write About Africa (2005)
Science is smaller than music, than the patterns of the body; the large confident world of sound and body gathers. If my mind and body are quickening, lagging behind is a rising anxiety of words.
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir (2011)
Among your characters you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West.
How to Write About Africa (2005)
We fail to trust that we knew ourselves to be possible from the beginning.
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir (2011)
The Loyal Servant always behaves like a seven-year-old and needs a firm hand; he is scared of snakes, good with children, and always involving you in his complex domestic dramas.
How to Write About Africa (2005)
Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed.
How to Write About Africa (2005)
Cloud travel is well and good when you have mastered the landings. I never have. I must live, not dream about living.
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir (2011)
There is an ache in my chest today, sweet, searching, and painful, like a tongue that is cut and tingles with sweetness and pain after eating a strong pineapple.
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir (2011)
When talking about exploitation by foreigners mention the Chinese and Indian traders. Blame the West for Africa’s situation. But do not be too specific.
How to Write About Africa (2005)
Africa is the only continent you can love—take advantage of this. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset.
How to Write About Africa (2005)
I start to understand why so little good literature is produced in Kenya. The talent is wasted writing donor-funded edutainment and awareness-raising brochures for seven thousand dollars a job. Do not complicate things, and you will be paid well.
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir (2011)
....see how lions teach their children? Elephants are caring, and are good feminists or dignified patriarchs. So are gorillas.
How to Write About Africa (2005)
It is an aspect of Kenya I am always acutely aware of - and crave, because I don't have it all. My third language, Gikuyu, is nearly non-existent; I can't speak it. It is a phantom limb...
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir (2011)