119 Quotes by Uzodinma Iweala

You cannot unsee what has been seen once the veil is lifted, Reverend Olumide says in church. We cannot return to the garden of Eden. When I meet with him he says I need to confront my fears, that the devil torments us with that which scares us most. So, I cross the line between the blue hallways tiles and the white locker-room floor and navigate my way to locker number thirty-two.

The streets are empty and quiet this early in the morning and I can hear my own footsteps as they fall. I can never forget the imperfections in these brick sidewalks, where they rise and dip around tree roots, where loose segments can make you stumble and fall. Mom is right, the morning is cooler than I expected, but I am committed to the cold air sting that will soon turn to an unbearably soggy heat. Such is the way of a city built on a swamp.

Are you lost if you know where you're going-- just not how to get there?

There is no one to laugh with about his cookies and milk, to gush about the fact that he is eighteen like I am eighteen only he seems much older.

See over there, I can be me, he says. I smile but it makes me sad. I haven't found any safe spaces. Damien says, you're safe with me. Until I'm not. He raises an eyebrow. With you I mean, I add. I dream about an internship on the West Coast, but there is nothing for me to do. I am not the president's daughter. I've never met a movie star. I barely watch television.

Sometimes I wonder who my mother might be if she weren't married to my father. Everyone around him seems that much less free-spirited, that much less open to possibility, so much more controlled. At her office she is loud and filled with infectious laugher. Here she is more quiet and deferential. I can cut a cucumber, I say more sharply than I intend. She winces and busies herself with searching for a vegetable peeler, if only to make a point.

I have never had the guts to say it, but I've always hated the Reverend Oluminde, Bishop Okereke style of preacher. They speak and laugh too loud. They project warmth like an industrial heater blasting the closest thing to them with too much intensity instead of radiating like the sun that simply draws you into its warmth. 

People should know when they are conquered, OJ used to say when he would pin me to the floor and tickle me until I couldn't tell whether I was laughing or crying. There is nothing you can do, give it up, it's easier that way, OJ would say. You can't win, so just let go, he said once when I said I wanted to punch my father in the face,

People should know when they are conquered, OJ used to say when he would pin me to the floor and tickle me until I couldn't tell whether I was laughing or crying. There is nothing you can do, give it up, it's easier that way, OJ would say. You can't win, so just let go, he said once when I said I wanted to punch my father in the face.