Chris Abani Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• My friend Ronald Gottesman says...that the cause of all our trouble is the belief in an essential, pure identity: religious, ethnic, historical, ideological.

  Chris Abani

  Religious, Historical, Identity

  7 Copy quote

• Narrative is a very feeble weapon in the face of human darkness and yet it's all we have. That we have to hang the transformation and survival of our species on the journey and transformation of one singular person so far outside of what we expect they can do.

  Chris Abani

  Journey, Darkness, Survival

  Interview with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

  6 Copy quote

• If I dont get at least one e-mail every ten minutes, I feel unloved. Even junk mail makes me feel seen. Sad, I know. Sigh.

  Chris Abani

  Junk, Mail, Minutes

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• You can count on Scandinavian literature for a certain kind of darkness, a modern mythic style.

  Chris Abani

  Darkness, Style, Literature

  Interview with Amy Sutherland, www.bostonglobe.com. March 22, 2014.

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• The greatest thing about form and convention is that it saves you from having to reinvent the wheel. Now, whether you mount the wheel to a horse carriage or a Formula One racing car, make it plain or give it spinning rims, those are all craft decisions. But the fact of the wheel remains: it will turn if you set it down. That's what I mean about the beauty of the gifts genre can offer.

  Chris Abani

  Horse, Mean, Giving

  "The Rumpus Interview With Chris Abani". Interview with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

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• Men do communicate, often very directly, but women sometimes cannot accept how simple what we have to say is. We seldom play games--we aren't that sophisticated.

  Chris Abani

  Men, Simple, Play

  7 Copy quote

• All power within the microcosm of my world was held and wielded by people who look like me. Plus, I think Nigerians all have this sense that they are better than everyone, including white people. So I have the privilege of a certain distance. It may just be that. So in a sense, I can't claim that as any ability that I have, simply a matter of circumstance.

  Chris Abani

  Distance, Thinking, White

  RUMPUS INTERVIEW with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

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• Unlike other books or TV shows or sometimes life, my narrative worlds are stripped of implicit moral centers. There is only what you bring. That makes the characters risky in every way and the narrative, a journey of change for the reader. But I make the journey as fun as I can.

  Chris Abani

  Fun, Book, Character

  RUMPUS INTERVIEW with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

  6 Copy quote

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

  Chris Abani

  Long, Variables, Oppression

  Chris Abani (2014). “The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel”, p.126, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• We are hunting the demons that haunt others. We get a smell and off we go. And you know why, Sunil? You know why we are so good at hunting the demons of others? Because we are so good, gifted even, at stalking and evading our own. But all demons hunters think that they are really heroes, and you know what all heroes need?

  Chris Abani

  Hero, Thinking, Hunting

  Chris Abani (2014). “The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel”, p.91, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• The Igbo used to say that they built their own gods. They would come together as a community, and they would express a wish. And their wish would then be brought to a priest, who would find a ritual object, and the appropriate sacrifices would be made, and the shrine would be built for the god.

  Chris Abani

  Sacrifice, Community, Wish

  "On humanity". TED Talks, www.ted.com. February, 2008.

  6 Copy quote

• If you want to know about Africa, read our literature - and not just 'Things Fall Apart,' because that would be like saying, 'I've read 'Gone with the Wind' and so I know everything about America.'

  Chris Abani

  Motivation, Fall, Inspiration

  "Telling stories from Africa". Talk at TED conference, www.ted.com. June, 2007.

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• My mom taught me to read when I was two or three. When I was five I read and wrote well enough to do my nine-year older brother's homework in exchange for chocolate or cigarettes. By the time I was 10, I was reading Orwell, Tolstoy's War and Peace, and the Koran. I was reading comic books too.

  Chris Abani

  Mom, Brother, War

  Interview with Amy Sutherland, www.bostonglobe.com. March 22, 2014.

  6 Copy quote

• The truth is, everything we know about America, everything Americans come to know about being American, isn't from the news. I live there. We don't go home at the end of the day and think, "Well, I really know who I am now because the Wall Street Journal says that the Stock Exchange closed at this many points." What we know about how to be who we are comes from stories. It comes from the novels, the movies, the fashion magazines. It comes from popular culture.

  Chris Abani

  Fashion, Wall, Home

  "On humanity". TED Talks, www.ted.com. February, 2008.

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• Here's the thing: You rescue us every day in small, quiet ways, so why not in this way? Let us into your mystery, tell us how you would like to be loved, show us how to see you, really see you.

  Chris Abani

  Way, Why Not, Mystery

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• I think a book that is over 400 pages should be split in two. I don't know that there's anything that interesting that can go on for 700 pages. I think that is a little bit indulgent.

  Chris Abani

  Book, Thinking, Two

  Interview with Amy Sutherland, www.bostonglobe.com. March 22, 2014.

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• My books are often shelved around those of Chinua Achebe and Margaret Atwood, or Chimamanda Adichie and Monica Ali. All of this depends, of course, on the bookstore and how conversant the shelf stocker is with the alphabet.

  Chris Abani

  Book, Alphabet, Shelves

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• I think that most writers who are trying to write important and difficult books are in many ways putting their own humanity into question. Sometimes the journey is finding out where you stand in relationship to your own humanity and to the humanity of others.

  Chris Abani

  Book, Writing, Journey

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Chris Abani

  Night, Quality, Tears

  Chris Abani (2014). “The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel”, p.124, Penguin

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• I think it's an aggregation of all of the small acts that are really transformative. I think a group of small acts transform the individual. And maybe when the individual transforms, collectively we transform.

  Chris Abani

  Thinking, Small Acts, Groups

  4 Copy quote

• The Internet is really our meeting place. We have this amazing listserv. Every time I log onto it I feel a sense of pride, because if you log on and say, "Oh I was just in San Diego and I was in a park and I saw a lion," the flurry of replies on average is just like--wow! All these existential questions about what it means to be an African, and never having seen a lion at home, but having seen a lion here. Everything you say turns into this real philosophical debate--it's incredible in so many ways. And it's an invigorating place to be.

  Chris Abani

  Real, Philosophical, Mean

  4 Copy quote

• Every successful artist comes from a family - parents or siblings or both - who, although equally gifted, chose not to pursue the treacherous and difficult path of the artist.

  Chris Abani

  Sibling, Successful, Artist

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• My search is always to find ways to chronicle, to share and to document stories about people, just everyday people. Stories that offer transformation, that lean into transcendence, but that are never sentimental, that never look away from the darkest things about us.

  Chris Abani

  People, Everyday, Looks

  "On humanity". TED Talks, www.ted.com. February, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• I didn't leave Africa, I left Nigeria, and for political reasons. But ... I've never, never left Africa, and I certainly never left what it means to be Ibo. That is something you carry with you.

  Chris Abani

  Mean, Political, Reason

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• Anything a man can do, I can fix.

  Chris Abani

  Men, Can Do, I Can

  "On humanity". TED Talks, www.ted.com. February, 2008.

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