"It is easy to romanticize poverty, to see poor people as inherently lacking agency and will. It is easy to strip them of human dignity, to reduce them to objects of pity. This has never been clearer than in the view of Africa from the American media, in which we are shown poverty and conflicts without any context."

"Lasting love has to be built on mutual regard and respect. It is about seeing the other person. I am very interested in relationships and, when I watch couples, sometimes I can sense a blindness has set in. They have stopped seeing each other. It is not easy to see another person."

"I think I'm ridiculously fortunate. I consider myself a Nigerian - that's home; my sensibility is Nigerian. But I like America, and I like that I can spend time in America."

"Successful fiction does not need to be validated by 'real life'; I cringe whenever a writer is asked how much of a novel is 'real'."

"The humor section is the last place an author wants to be. They put your stuff next to collections of Cathy cartoons."

"Age appears to be best in four things old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read."

"More generally, I made an effort to leave out things that weren't relevant to the main narrative themes of the book, namely that there were two sides to Steve Jobs: the romantic, poetic, countercultural rebel on one side, and the serious businessperson on the other."

"The Spice Girl Victoria Beckham has just published the story of her life. I confess that it is not in my reading table."