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He stared at the city, half slum, half paradise. How could a place be so ugly and violent yet beautiful at the same time? he wondered. He hadn’t known about the poverty and violence of Lagos until he arrived. It was as if people conspired with the city to weave a web of silence around its unsavoury parts.

— Chris Abani GraceLand (2004)

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Notes from Wikiquote

A vision of an altogether different world, where the first and the third world is separated virtually only by the lagoon.

More quotes by Chris Abani

He said to me, "It will always be difficult, but if you cry like this every time, you will die of heartbreak. Just know it is enough sometimes to know it is difficult."

TED Africa Conference (2008)

"This is the kola nut. This seed is a star. This star is life. This star is us".

GraceLand (2004)

Time was the only variable in every equation of power and oppression-how long before the pot boiled over.

Something that had the quality of a dimly lit stage set just before the curtains rise on opening night. There was a rhythm to it, a beckoning, and a bittersweet tear in time.

There had been many such experiments when he worked in South Africa, in Vlakplaas, a notorious apartheid death camp.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Chris Abani (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.