Nnedi Okorafor Quotes

There will be danger; some of you may not live to complete your lessons. It's a risk you take. This world is bigger than you and it will go on, regardless. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

The way people on Oomza Uni were so diverse and everyone handled that as if it were normal continued to surprise me. It was so unlike Earth, where wars were fought over and because of differences and most couldn't relate to anyone unless they were similar. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

However, just because something isn't surprising doesn't mean it's easy to deal with. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

One of my feet is a whole size longer than the other. One is size ten, the other is size eleven. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

My mother once said that fear is like a man who, once burned, is afraid of a glow worm ~ Nnedi Okorafor

There's a story in 'Kabu Kabu' called 'Bakasi Man' where I got to explore the mind of a 'bad man.' It was fun. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I am the unseen. For centuries I have been here, beneath this great city, this metropolis. I know your language. I know all languages ... My cave is broad and cool. The sun cannot send its heat down here. The damp soil is rich and fragrant. I turn softly on my back and place my eight legs to the cave ceiling. Then, I listen. I am the spider. I see sound. I feel taste. I hear touch. I spin this story. This is the story I've spun. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

When she was afraid, nervous, or uncomfortable, all she had to do was focus on the science to feel balanced again. It was no different now. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

The Magical Negro rested his red cane on his shoulder and leisurely strolled into the forest to see if he could find him some hobbits, castles, dragons, princesses, and all that other shit. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

All of them watched the footage, even Fisayo. After it finished, none of them said a word, yet in their minds, they saw plenty. Jacobs saw an end to living with parents who refused to accept him. His sister Fisayo saw all of Lagos in flames. Seven saw infinite possibilities and a people from outer space that could make the world embrace and love everyone. Rome saw the rise of Rome. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I want you to write yourself into history because no matter what history books say, even you are a part of it. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I would try to write 'realistic' fiction, and someone would fly, or there would be a black hole full of demons or a girl who attracted frogs. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I grew up reading Stephen King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Robert McCammon, Isaac Asimov's nonfiction books, and Roald Dahl. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Maybe I'm too scared to fly, but I'm brave enough to save your life. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I love books . I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas . I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud ~ Nnedi Okorafor

the girl who was so lovely even her father couldn't resist her. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I slammed the door in the child's face, a horrific scream trapped in my throat. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

As I have repeated incessantly throughout this book, there is no direction you can turn that does not face you toward certain death. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Though I knew I shouldn't have cared, the words still hurt like pinches, and pinches can be very painful when done in the same place many times in a row. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

They say that when faced with a fight you cannot win, you can never predict what you will do next. But I'd always known I'd fight until I was killed. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

THE BOY AND THE LADY ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Edgar never used the rhythm to do violence again. But when he got on stage, when he rapped and let the words flow from his tongue like warmed honey, he could feel it. It would be there when he needed it. So far, he hadn't needed it. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

would you have felt? ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I swiped otjize from my forehead with my index finger and knelt down. Then I touched the finger to the sand, grounding the sweet smelling red clay into it. "Thank you," I whispered. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I think juju was worked on us at our Eleventh Rite. It's . . . probably broken with marriage." I looked hard at Luyu. "I think if you force intercourse, you'll die." "It is broken with marriage," Diti said nodding. "My cousin always talks about how only a pure woman attracts a man pure enough to bring pleasure to the marriage bed. She says her husband is the purest man around . . . probably because he was the first who didn't bring her pain." "Ugh," Luyu said, angrily. "We're tricked into thinking our husbands are gods. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Olo, Remi, Kwuga, Nur, Anajama, Rhoden. Only Olo and Remi were in my group. Everyone else I met in the dining area or the learning room where various lectures were held by professors onboard the ship. They were all girls who grew up in sprawling houses, who'd never walked through the desert, who'd never stepped on a snake in the dry grass. They were girls who could not stand the rays of Earth's sun unless it was shining through a tinted window.

Yet they were girls who knew what I meant when I spoke of "treeing." We sat in my room (because, having so few travel items, mine was the emptiest) and challenged each other to look out at the stars and imagine the most complex equation and then split it in half and then in half again and again. When you do math fractals long enough, you kick yourself into treeing just enough to get lost in the shallows of the mathematical sea. None of us would have made it into the university if we couldn't tree, but it's not easy. We were the best and we pushed each other to get closer to "God. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

We all are born with burdens. Some of us more than others. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

The tarantula scrambles faster, certain that he will make it across. Certain of his extraordinary speed. Crunch. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

We all must travel,' the driver said, keeping his eyes on the way ahead. His hands grasped the wheel firmly. 'It is the essence of all things, to move and change and keep going forward and backward and around. Even the spirits and the dead. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

old doesn't always mean less advanced." I ~ Nnedi Okorafor

School will bring you more success than marriage. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

If you don't recognize yourself, then who is the one who reminds you of who you are? ~ Nnedi Okorafor

To be something abnormal meant that you were to serve the normal. And if you refused, they hated you ... and often the normal hated you even when you did serve them. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

A tool always begs to be used. The trick is to learn how to use it. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Is it not the worst pain to know there is a cure for your child's illness and then not be able to obtain it? Oh it must be the one of the worst types of pain in the world ... ~ Nnedi Okorafor

This world is bigger than you and it will go on, regardless." What ~ Nnedi Okorafor

You are not crazy. You are just ready to change. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

My novel Who Fears Death is a post-apocalyptic novel set in a future Sudan. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Money and material things make you king or queen of the Lamb world. You can do no wrong, you can do anything. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

People get inspired to write, paint, draw, sing, sculpt, dance in many different ways. And there are many types of art. But the one thing that they all have in common is that they are all a sort of magic. Sometimes the magic flows from one's fingers, other times it is transferred to the person who experiences the result. Magic has always worked in mysterious ways. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

You might have liked the United States more,"" she said. "They've got more stuff. And if your spaceship is broken, they can probably fix it better. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Silence is the best answer to a fool. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

It grows because it's alive. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Just because you are American does not make you American. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

If you spend enough time in the desert, you will hear it speak. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Human beings make terrible gods. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

We embrace those things that make us unique or odd. For only in these things can we locate and then develop our most individual abilities. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

My father didn't believe in war. He said war was evil, but if it came he would revel in it like sand in a storm. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

My mother always tells me that anyone who gets enjoyment from other people's misery will eventually get the greatest discomfort from his or her own miseries. ~ Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

I have this obsession with destruction. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

But I hoped he couldn't read my mind. No one needed to know that. Not even him. He chuckled, again. "That is to be decided by your actions, Phoenix. Not by your thoughts. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I couldn't see the end of the corridor, so I stared at the entrance. The ship was a magnificent piece of living technology. Third Fish was a Miri 12, a type of ship closely related to a shrimp. Miri 12s were stable calm creatures with natural exoskeletons that could withstand the harshness of space. They were genetically enhanced to grow three breathing chambers within their bodies. Scientists planted rapidly growing plants within these three enormous rooms that not only produced oxygen from the CO2 directed in from other parts of the ship, but also absorbed benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene. This was some of the most amazing technology I'd ever read about. Once settled on the ship, I was determined to convince someone to let me see one of these amazing rooms. But at the moment, I wasn't thinking about the technology of the ship. I was on the threshold now, between home and my future. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I see the world as a magical place. Therefore, it was only natural that magic wafted from my fiction like smoke. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

We cried and sobbed and wept and bled tears. But when we were finished, all we could do was continue living. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Two footsteps do not make a path. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I believed I could only be great if I were curious enough to seek greatness. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

I love writing about monsters and food. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

How different my life would have been if my parents had just let me dance. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Let me guess," the frog interrupted,"Like every other human explored I've even met, you want to know the meaning of life."
"I didn't-"
"The answer's forty-four. The machine was off by two" the frog snapped, "Believe me, it makes a world of difference... ~ Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

Feet away, Professor Dema stood, carrying a large gunlike weapon with both her hands and a snarl on her lips. This was not the way final exams were supposed to go. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

But deep down inside me, I wanted . . . I needed it. I couldn't help but act on it. The urge was so strong that it was mathematical. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Nothing is wrong with me? I thought. Not unclean? It's just . . . a new part of me I need to learn to control? I'd come all this way to go on my pilgrimage because I'd thought my body was trying to tell me something was wrong with it. I hadn't wanted to admit it to myself, but I'd thought I'd broken myself because of the choices I'd made, because of my actions, because I'd left my home to go to Oomza Uni. Because of guilt. The relief I felt was so all encompassing that I wanted to lie down on the rug and just sleep. Ariya ~ Nnedi Okorafor

When are aliens ever not evil?"
"E.T.?" Rome said. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

It's ok to care about what other people think, but you should give a little more weight to what you, yourself, think ... The habit of thinking is the habit of gaining strength. You're stronger than you believe. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

There are more valuable things in life than safety and comfort. Learn. You owe it to yourself. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

How can a man slap his wife 'in the name of Jesus'? You instructed him to do so! You think I didn't see your e-mail to him a week ago? 'Break her with your hands, then soften her with flowers. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Lambs think money and material things are the most important thing in the world. You can cheat, lie, steal, kill, be dumb as a rock, but if you can brag about money and having lots of things and your bragging is true, that bypasses everything. Money ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Look, Brother Chris, women are . . . weak vessels. It is identified in the Bible. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

See? We never needed you. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Use your powers for good instead of evil ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Anthony was calm as an underground river. Father Oke was a volcano ready to erupt. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Neither (brother) even glaced at the counter. She smiled. Her dumb brothers never cooked. She didn't think they even knew how! A human being who needs food to live but cannot prepare that food to eat? Pathetic. In this case, it was an advantage. They weren't interested in any food until it had been cooked for them. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

Trouble is never hard to find. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

We'll never know exactly why we are, what we are, and so on. All you can do is follow your path all the way to the wilderness, and then you continue along because that's what must be. ~ Nnedi Okorafor

You fit get me inside dere?" he asked, his voice lusty in her ear. "I go try, baby," she whispered. ~ Nnedi Okorafor