159 Quotes by Nnedi Okorafor

There was always so much I didn’t know, but not knowing was part of it all.

Those women talked about me, the men probably did too. But none of them knew what I had, where I was going, who I was. Let them gossip and judge. Thankfully, they knew not to touch my hair again. I don’t like war either.

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

If there were aliens, they certainly wouldn’t come to Nigeria. Or maybe they would.

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

Humans. Always performing.

When elephants fight, the grass suffers.

Then there was Heru. I had never spoken to him, but we smiled across the table at each other during mealtimes. He was from one of those cities so far from mine that they seemed like a figment of my imagination, where there was snow and where men rode those enormous gray birds and the women could speak with those birds without moving their mouths.

Whenever my father allowed me to buy a new book, I spent hours in my room with my eyes closed as I listened to it on my astrolabe. In many of those stories, a curious person would find a secret or magical object that would change her or his life. I’d always wanted that to happen to me. And now I was sure this was it.