CNChimamanda Ngozi Adichie

136 collected words

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Born 1977 AD; death year unknown

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Quotations and sayings

01c. 1977 AD

She seemed so happy, so at peace, and I wondered how anybody around me could feel that way when liquid fire was raging inside me, when fear was mingling with hope and clutching itself around my ankles.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / quote

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02c. 1977 AD

...she thought of him as a person who did not have a normal spine, but had instead, a firm reed of goodness.

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03c. 1977 AD

One day, I will look up and all the people I know will be dead or abroad.

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04c. 1977 AD

Greatness depends on where you are coming from.

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05c. 1977 AD

Be a full person. Motherhood is a glorious gift, but do not define yourself solely by motherhood. Be a full person. Your child will benefit from that.

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06c. 1977 AD

If the justification for controlling women's bodies were about women themselves, then it would be understandable. If, for example, the reason was 'women should not wear short skirts because they can get cancer if they do.' Instead the reason is not about women, but about men. Women must be 'covered up' to protect men. I find this deeply dehumanizing because it reduces women to mere props used to manage the appetites of men.

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07c. 1977 AD

A father is as much a verb as a mother.

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08c. 1977 AD

Talk to her about sex, and start early. It will probably be a bit awkward, but it is necessary.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / quote

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09c. 1977 AD

It was what Aunty Ifeoma did to my cousins, I realized then, setting higher and higher jumps for them in the way she talked to them, in what she expected of them. She did it all the time believing they would scale the rod. And they did. It was different for Jaja and me. We did not scale the rod because we believed we could, we scaled it because we were terrified that we couldn't.

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10c. 1977 AD

And it's wrong of you to think that love leaves room for nothing else. It's possible to love something and still condescend to it.

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11c. 1977 AD

Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / quote

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12c. 1977 AD

Alexa, and the other guests, and perhaps even Georgina, all understood the fleeing from war, from the kind of poverty that crushed human souls, but they would not understand the need to escape from the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness.

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13c. 1977 AD

The best thing about America is that it gives you space. I like that. I like that you buy into the dream, it's a lie but you buy into it and that's all that matters.

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14c. 1977 AD

It felt strange to call them directly, to hear her father’s “Hello?” after the second ring, and when he heard her voice, he raised his, almost shouting, as he always did with international calls. Her mother liked to take the phone out to the verandah, to make sure the neighbors overheard: “Ifem, how is the weather in America?

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15c. 1977 AD

As they walked out of the store, Ifemelu said, “I was waiting for her to ask ‘Was it the one with two eyes or the one with two legs?’ Why didn’t she just ask ‘Was it the black girl or the white girl?’”Ginika laughed. “Because this is America. You’re supposed to pretend that you don’t notice certain things.

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16c. 1977 AD

She recognized in Kelsey the nationalism of liberal Americans who copiously criticized America but did not like you to do so; they expected you to be silent and grateful, and always reminded you of how much better than wherever you had come from America was.

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17c. 1977 AD

smiling a smile full of things restrained

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18c. 1977 AD

She felt a sense that things were in order, the way they were meant to be, and that even if they tumbled down once in a while, in the end they would come back together again.

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19c. 1977 AD

Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.

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20c. 1977 AD

Richard exhaled. It was like somebody sprinkling pepper on his wound: Thousands of Biafrans were dead, and this man wanted to know if there was anything new about one dead white man. Richard would write about this, the rule of Western journalism: One hundred dead black people equal to one dead white person.

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21c. 1977 AD

But why do we say nothing?" Ujunwa asked. She raised her voice and looked at the others. "Why do we always say nothing?

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22c. 1977 AD

In America, racism exists but racists are all gone. Racists belong to the past. Racists are the thin-lipped mean white people in the movies about the civil rights era. Here's the thing: the manifestation of racism has changed but the language has not. So if you haven't lynched somebody then you can't be called a racist. Somebody has to be able to say that racists are not monsters. They are people with loving families, regular folk who pay taxes. Somebody needs to get the job of deciding who is racist and who isn't. Or maybe it's time to just scrap the word 'racist.' Find something new. Like Racial Disorder Syndrome. And we could have different categories for sufferers of this syndrome: mild, medium, and acute.

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23c. 1977 AD

In America, racism exists but racists are all gone.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / quote

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24c. 1977 AD

Maybe it’s time to just scrap the word “racist.” Find something new. Like Racial Disorder Syndrome. And we could have different categories for sufferers of this syndrome: mild, medium, and acute.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / quote

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