39 Quotes by Binyavanga Wainaina

Every one, we, we homosexuals, are people, and we need our oxygen to breathe.

I like the idea of readers feeling a familiarity, whether it's with Africa or childhood.

I’m extremely optimistic about rapid transformation and change of things in Africa in general.

I, Binyavanga Wainaina, quite honestly swear I have known I am a homosexual since I was five.

We are a mixed up people. We have mixed up ways of naming, too... When my father's brothers and sisters first went to colonial schools, they had to produce a surname. They also had to show they were good Christians by adopting a western name. They adopted my grandfather's name as surname. Wainaina.

People reach an age... where somebody elses platform is no longer yours.

In kindergarten, we had this Irish Catholic headmistress called Sister Leonie, and I remember she would tell us, say, to put the crayons in the box. I remember thinking, 'Why is everyone finding this so easy? Why should the crayons be in the box?'

I knew I didn't want to come out in the 'New Yorker'; it just felt wrong. It needed an African conversation.

I want to be fighting for a society accountable towards its citizens.