That Her Relationship With Him Was Like

He Was Making Her Feel Small And Absurdly Petulant And, Worse Yet, She Suspected He Was Right. She Always Suspected He Was Right. For A Brief Irrational Moment, She Wished She Could Walk Away From Him. Then She Wished, More Rationally, That She Could Love Him Without Needing Him. Need Gave Him Power Without His Trying; Need Was The Choicelessness She Often Felt Around Him.

If I Were Not African, I Wonder Whether It Would Be Clear To Me That Africa Is A Place Where The People Do Not Need Limp Gifts Of Fish But Sturdy Fishing Rods And Fair Access To The Pond. I Wonder Whether I Would Realize That While African Nations Have A Failure Of Leadership, They Also Have Dynamic People With Agency And Voices.

I Am A Strong Believer In The Ability Of Human Beings To Change For The Better. I Am A Strong Believer In Trying To Change What We Are Dissatisfied With.

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.'

I Had People Read It Early On And, You Know, Well-meaning People Said To Me, You Should Take Out The Blogs. I Didn't Get Much Positive Feedback. Only Because Most Of These People Were Protective Of Me - It Was Sort Of Like A "tone It Down, Make It Easier To Swallow" Kind Of Thing. And I Just Thought If I Do That Then It's Not The Book I Want To Write.