749 Quotes by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

To call him humble was to make rudeness normal. Besides, humility had always seemed to him a specious thing, invented for the comfort of others; you were praised for humility by people because you did not make them feel any more lacking than they already did. It was honesty that he valued; he had always wished himself to be truly honest, and always feared that he was not

Ojiugo often asked, 'But are they treating you well? Are they treating you well?' as though the treatment was what mattered, rather than the blighted reality of it all, that he was in a holding center, about to be deported. Nobody behaved normally. They were all under the spell of his misfortune.

It was black-black, so thick it drank two containers of relaxer at the salon, so full it took hours under the hooded dryer, and, when finally released from pink plastic rollers, sprang free and full, flowing down her back like a celebration. Her father called it a crown of glory.

You can’t even read American fiction to get a sense of how actual life is lived these days. You read American fiction to learn about dysfunctional white folk doing things that are weird to normal white folks.

Tu n’es même pas obligée d’aimer ton travail : tu peux te contenter d’apprécier ce que t’apporte ton travail : la confiance, le sentiment d’accomplissement que tu acquiers en étant active, en gagnant ta vie.

It was the exaggerated gratitude that came with immigrant insecurity.

I finally understand why people get tattoos of those they have lost. The need to proclaim not merely the loss but the love, the continuity. I am my father’s daughter. It is an act of resistance and refusal: grief telling you it is over and your heart saying it is not; grief trying to shrink your love to the past and your heart saying it is present.

Chudi ne t’ « aide » pas quand il s’occupe de son enfant. Il fait ce qu’il est censé faire. Quand nous disons que les pères « aident », nous suggérons que s’occuper des enfants est un territoire appartenant aux mères, dans lequel les pères s’aventurent vaillamment. Ce n’est pas le cas. Tu imagines le nombre de personnes qui seraient aujourd’hui plus heureuses, plus stables, et qui contribueraient bien mieux à la société si leur père avait participé activement à leur enfance ?

Academics were not intellectuals; they were not curious, they built their stolid tents of specialized knowledge and stayed securely in them.