119 Quotes by Uzodinma Iweala

'Beasts of No Nation' began when I read an article about child soldiers in Sierra Leone during my final year of high school.

I feel like it's not Africans who are afraid of China's rise in Africa. It's the West that's afraid of China's rise in Africa.

People don't talk about the amount of destruction in terms of human lives that happen, whether it's through slavery, or through, for example, what Belgium was doing in the Congo - the fragmentation of society that happened after that destruction of human life.

There are some people who will tell you oil is the greatest thing that ever happened to Nigeria. And there are other people who will tell you it's the worst thing that ever happened.

Everybody has an equal right to be on this earth and to be happy on this earth and to achieve on this earth. That's kind of the way that I would like to try and go about living.

I think South Africa would be in a lot worse position had you not had visionaries like the Mandelas or the Oliver Tambos or the people there who came together after... both during apartheid and afterwards to create and structure their society.

I fundamentally believe that no one can teach you how to write - finding out how to write a story is part of the process of creating a story - but you can really learn through exposure to different writing, to different art forms, to different modes of storytelling, and with mentors who are able to get you to step outside your comfort zone.

It takes time for people to understand how to hold leaders accountable.

It takes time for people to understand how, as an individual, I can have an impact on the way that society works.