I’m really lucky with the people around me. They know me, so they don’t confuse the issues really. They know what a book is and they know who I am and they know the difference between the two.

People do not change, they are merely revealed.

Only bad writers think that their work is really good.

Write whatever way you like. Fiction is made of words on a page; reality is made of something else. It doesn't matter how "real" your story is, or how "made up": what matters is its necessity.

God, I hate my family, these people I never chose to love, but love all the same.

We do not always like the people we love- we do not always have that choice.

I have no place left to live but in my own heart.

The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page.

There are men who would do anything, asleep, and I'm not sure what stops them when they wake. I do not know how they draw the line.

Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.

Try to be accurate about stuff.

By walking on the right path, you create a golden fate for yourself and you also become a silver lining for the others!

The only thing that makes me sad is that I shall be leaving Africa when I die. I love Africa, which is my mother and my father. When I am dead, I shall miss the smell of Africa

Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society.

There is nothing scarier than being ‘the designer of the moment,’ because the moment ends.

When rumours increase, and when there is an abundance of noise and clamour, believe the second report.

When you go to take someone's picture, the first thing they say is, what you want me to do? Everyone is very awkward.

English? Who needs to spend time learning that? I'm never going to England!

I wouldn't mind doing Playboy again. But only if I had creative control.

But Marge, what if we chose the wrong religion? Each week we just make God madder and madder.

Breakdowns come, and breakdowns go.