I Have My Father's Lopsided Mouth. When

We Teach Girls That They Cannot Be Sexual Beings In The Way That Boys Are. If We Have Sons, We Don't Mind Knowing About Our Sons' Girlfriends, But Our Daughters' Boyfriends? God Forbid. But Of Course When The Time Is Right, We Expect Those Girls To Bring Back The Perfect Man To Be Their Husband.

Power Is The Ability Not Just To Tell The Story Of Another Person, But To Make It The Definitive Story Of That Person.

Culture Does Not Make People. People Make Culture.

In Primary School In South-eastern Nigeria, I Was Taught That Hosni Mubarak Was The President Of Egypt. I Learned The Same Thing In Secondary School. In University, Mubarak Was Still President Of Egypt. I Came To Assume, Subconsciously, That He - And Others Like Paul Biya In Cameroon And Muammar Gaddafi In Libya - Would Never Leave.

I Am Drawn, As A Reader, To Detail-drenched Stories About Human Lives Affected As Much By The Internal As By The External, The Kind Of Fiction That Jane Smiley Nicely Describes As 'first And Foremost About How Individuals Fit, Or Don't Fit, Into Their Social Worlds.'