Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quote
You can't write an honest novel about race in this country. If you write about how people are really affected by race, it'll be too obvious. Black writers who do literary fiction in this country, all three of them, not the ten thousand who write those bullshit ghetto books with the bright covers, have two choices: they can do precious or they can do pretentious. When you do neither, nobody knows what to do with you. So if you're going to write about race, you have to make sure it's so lyrical and subtle that the reader who doesn't read between the lines won't even know it's about race. You know, a Proustian meditation, all watery and fuzzy, that at the end just leaves you feeling watery and fuzzy.Or just find a white writer. White writers can be blunt about race and get all activist because their anger isn't threatening.
You can't write an honest novel about race in this country. If you write about how people are really affected by race, it'll be too obvious. Black writers who do literary fiction in this country, all three of them, not the ten thousand who write those bullshit ghetto books with the bright covers, have two choices: they can do precious or they can do pretentious. When you do neither, nobody knows what to do with you. So if you're going to write about race, you have to make sure it's so lyrical and subtle that the reader who doesn't read between the lines won't even know it's about race. You know, a Proustian meditation, all watery and fuzzy, that at the end just leaves you feeling watery and fuzzy.Or just find a white writer. White writers can be blunt about race and get all activist because their anger isn't threatening.
Related Quotes
About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Born in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria, Adichie's childhood was influenced by the aftermath of colonial rule, and the Nigerian Civil War which took the lives of both of her grandfathers. The war was the setting for her first novel and the subject of her second. Most of her works explore the themes of religion, Americanization, immigration, racism, gender, marriage, motherhood and womanhood. She was educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and moved to the United States at nineteen to complete her education. She first published the poetry collection Decisions in 1997, which was followed by a play, For Love of Biafra, in 1998. In less than ten years, she published eight books: novels, book essays and collections, memoirs, children's books, and short stories. Adichie has cited Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Enid Blyton and other authors as inspirations. Her style juxtaposes Western and African influences, particularly focusing on her own Igbo language and culture.
Adichie's 2009 TED Talk "The Danger of a Single Story" is one of the most viewed TED Talks of all time. Her 2012 talk "We Should All Be Feminists", was sampled by Beyoncé and featured on a tee-shirt by the French fashion house Dior in 2016. Adichie advocates using fashion as a medium to break down stereotypes and was recognised for her Wear Nigerian Campaign with a Shorty Award in 2018. Both her written works and public speaking encourage recognition of the diversity of humanity and the need for equality. She has received numerous academic awards, fellowships, and honourary degrees, among them a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008 and an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.