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Quotes from Purple Hibiscus — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

born 1977 Nigeria

← All quotes by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

13 quotes

"People have crushes on priests all the time, you know. It’s exciting to have to deal with God as a rival."

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

Imagine what the Standard would be if we were all quiet.’

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

Morality, as well as the sense of taste, is relative.’

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

I meant to say I am sorry that Papa broke your figurines, but the words that came out were, ‘I’m sorry your figurines broke, Mama.’

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

"I cannot control even the dreams that I have made."

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

A love sip, he called it, because you shared the little things you loved with the people you loved […] The tea was always too hot, always burned my tongue.”

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

"There was a helplessness to his joy, the same kind of helplessness as in that woman’s despair."

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

Things started to fall apart at home.”

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

Things started to fall apart when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the étagère.

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

"Eugene has to stop doing God's job. God is big enough to do his own job. If God will judge our father for choosing to follow the way of our ancestors, then let God do the judging, not Eugene."

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

It was a joke. Ade Coker was laughing; so was his wife, Yewande. But Papa did not laugh. Jaja and I turned and went back upstairs, silently.

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

When she made a U-turn and went back the way we had come, I let my mind drift, imagining God laying out the hills of Nsukka with his wide white hands, crescent-moon shadows underneath his nails just like Father Benedict’s.

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

Jaja’s defiance seems like Ifeoma’s experimental purple hibiscus: rare, fragrant with the undertones of freedom, a different kind of freedom from the one the crowds waving green leaves chanted at Government Square after the coup. A freedom to be, to do.”

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.