Nnedi Okorafor Quotes

Flawed, imperfect creatures! That's what we both are, oga! That's what we ALL are!

We embrace those things that make us unique or odd. For only in these things can we locate and then develop our most individual abilities.

Though I knew I shouldn’t have cared, the words still hurt like pinches, and pinches can be very painful when done in the same place many times in a row.

We prefer to explore the universe by traveling inward, as opposed to outward.

There are more valuable things in life than safety and comfort. Learn. You owe it to yourself.

It's ok to care about what other people think, but you should give a little more weight to what you, yourself, think...The habit of thinking is the habit of gaining strength. You're stronger than you believe.

However, just because something isn’t surprising doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with.

Silence is the best answer to a fool.

To be something abnormal meant that you were to serve the normal. And if you refused, they hated you... and often the normal hated you even when you did serve them.

We cried and sobbed and wept and bled tears. But when we were finished, all we could do was continue living.

There will be danger; some of you may not live to complete your lessons. It's a risk you take. This world is bigger than you and it will go on, regardless.

Funny how all things people don’t understand seem to be ‘cursed’.

They say that when faced with a fight you cannot win, you can never predict what you will do next. But I'd always known I'd fight until I was killed.

I love books . I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas . I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud

My father didn’t believe in war. He said war was evil, but if it came he would revel in it like sand in a storm.

They’re capable of great things, but potential doesn’t equal success.

They don’t teach them to understand others, they teach them to expect others to understand them,” he said in English. He humphed and said, “Americans.

I want you to write yourself into history because no matter what history books say, even you are a part of it.

People are too focused on money. It’s supposed to be a tool, not the prize to be won.

Lesson one,” Anatov said. “And this is for all of you. Learn how to learn. Read between the lines. Know what to take and what to discard.

To know someone's pain is to share in it. And to share in it is to relieve some of it.

Her story travelled like an ancestor, always ahead of, beside and behind her.

Change was constant. Change was my destiny. Growth.

Home will never be the same once you know what you are. Your whole life will change.

No matter what choice I made, I was never going to have a normal life, really. I looked around and immediately knew what to do next.

A tree with strong roots laughs at storms.

I was young but I hated like a middle-aged man at the end of his prime.

I felt the pain and the glory of growth, was straining and shuddering with it.

I believed I could only be great if I were curious enough to seek greatness.

The way people on Oomza Uni were so diverse and everyone handled that as if it were normal continued to surprise me. It was so unlike Earth, where wars were fought over and because of differences and most couldn't relate to anyone unless they were similar.

Some of our old ways are better forgotten, but not all of them.

But deep down inside me, I wanted . . . I needed it. I couldn’t help but act on it. The urge was so strong that it was mathematical.

We'll never know exactly why we are, what we are, and so on. All you can do is follow your path all the way to the wilderness, and then you continue along because that's what must be.

Lambs think money and material things are the most important thing in the world. You can cheat, lie, steal, kill, be dumb as a rock, but if you can brag about money and having lots of things and your bragging is true, that bypasses everything. Money and material things make you king or queen of the Lamb world. You can do no wrong, you can do anything.

Maybe I'm too scared to fly, but I'm brave enough to save your life.

Two footsteps do not make a path.

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

Human beings make terrible gods.

When you face your deepest fears, when you are ready,” she’d said. “Don’t turn away. Stand tall, endure, face them. If you get through it, they will never harm you again.

When elephants fight, the grass suffers.

I was a trapped animal. Not trapped by the women, the house, or tradition. I was trapped by life. Like I had been a free spirit for millennia and then one day something snatched me up, something violent and angry and vengeful, and I was pulled into the body that I now resided in.

It grows because it's alive.

This world is bigger than you and it will go on, regardless.” What

I frowned. They sounded like the same thing to me, gain and purpose.

I have this obsession with destruction.

Just because you are American does not make you American.

Even back then I had changed things, and I didn’t even know it. When I should have reveled in this gift, instead, I’d seen myself as broken. But couldn’t you be broken and still bring change?

What’s the matter?” she asked, worried. “I’m afraid of what you’ll find.” “We’ll definitely find some interesting things, but nothing you can’t deal with, Binti. You already are what you are and you’re fine.

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.

You know how the story ends. He escaped and went on to become the greatest chief Suntown ever had. He never built a shrine or a temple or even a shack in the name of Tia. In the Great Book, her name is never mentioned again. He never mused about her or even asked where she was buried. Tia was a virgin. She was beautiful. She was poor. And she was a girl. It was her duty to sacrifice her life for his.

Trouble is never hard to find.

It’s as I taught you: the world is bigger and more important than you.

I whimpered, biting my lip. "I'm here, I'm here, I'm here," i whispered. Because I was and there was no way out.

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

I am Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka of Namib,” I whispered.

Money and material things make you king or queen of the Lamb world. You can do no wrong, you can do anything.

The tarantula scrambles faster, certain that he will make it across. Certain of his extraordinary speed. Crunch.

old doesn’t always mean less advanced.

Sometimes too much knowledge can make you mean. You know too much.

You might have liked the United States more,”” she said. “They’ve got more stuff. And if your spaceship is broken, they can probably fix it better.

He was always calling them evil, though he’d never traveled to a Khoush country or known a Khoush. His anger was rightful, but all that he said was from what he didn’t truly know.

Dedicated to the little blue jellyfish I saw swimming the Khalid Lagoon that sunny day in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

If you spend enough time in the desert, you will hear it speak.

Lies are a thing of the physical world. They can’t exist in the spirit world.

She loved this tree so much and every so often, it seemed to love her back, too, its leaves looking greener in the sunshine than any other tree.

My mother always tells me that anyone who gets enjoyment from other people's misery will eventually get the greatest discomfort from his or her own miseries.

Having curiosity is the only way to learn.

Neither (brother) even glaced at the counter. She smiled. Her dumb brothers never cooked. She didn’t think they even knew how! A human being who needs food to live but cannot prepare that food to eat? Pathetic. In this case, it was an advantage. They weren’t interested in any food until it had been cooked for them.

I am the unseen. For centuries I have been here, beneath this great city, this metropolis. I know your language. I know all languages. . . . My cave is broad and cool. The sun cannot send its heat down here. The damp soil is rich and fragrant. I turn softly on my back and place my eight legs to the cave ceiling. Then, I listen. I am the spider. I see sound. I feel taste. I hear touch. I spin this story. This is the story I’ve spun.

Why did you call me over?” Sankofa asked. The woman crossed her arms over her chest, inspecting Sankofa as if she were the daughter of her best friend. “I like to look into the eyes of hurricanes,” she said.

Adaora was beginning to see why Ayodele’s people had chosen the city of Lagos. If they’d landed in New York, Tokyo or London, the governments of these places would have quickly swooped to hide, isolate and study the aliens. Here in Lagos, there was no such order.

In Sankofa's years on the road, she'd learned that people were complicated. They wore masks and guises to protect or hide their real selves. They reinvented themselves. They destroyed themselves. They built on themselves. She understood people and their often contradictory ways...

Stay out of trouble. Be positive forces to the world.

We all are born with burdens. Some of us more than others.

Fate is fixed like brittle crystal in the dark.

Suicide is death on purpose!

Prejudice begets prejudice, you see. Knowledge does not always evolve into wisdom.

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

When she was afraid, nervous, or uncomfortable, all she had to do was focus on the science to feel balanced again. It was no different now.

School will bring you more success than marriage.

When are aliens ever not evil?” “E.T.?” Rome said.

Sometimes a man must throw caution to the wind.

Humans. Always performing.

His anger was rightful, but all that he said was from what he didn’t truly know.

Overconsumption is a universal human trait,” Orlu pointed out. “And so is ignorance.

Oh, how our traditions limit and outcast those of us who aren't normal.

I wanted to ask, 'Why did you let this happen?' but that was blasphemy. You never ask why. It was not a question for you to ask.

Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud.

If there was one thing I had learned in all my strange journeys it was that what would be would be and sometimes you wait to see.

She’s the adopted child of the Angel of Death. Beware of her. Mind her. Death guards her like one of its own.” There was truth in every single one of the stories.

I swiped otjize from my forehead with my index finger and knelt down. Then I touched the finger to the sand, grounding the sweet smelling red clay into it. "Thank you," I whispered.

I’m not meant to stay here. You know it. You’ve always known it. I was always going out into the desert. You know? Because it’s huge, it’s vast. When I look back, the desert and space, they feel similar.

Butterflies understand the desert well. That’s why they move this way and that. They’re always Holding Conversation with the land. They talk as much as they listen. It’s in the desert’s language that you call the butterflies.

He wished he were at his home in Abuja with a glass of cool Guinness, watching Star Wars on his high-definition widescreen television. He loved Star Wars, especially the more recent instalments. There was such honour in Star Wars. In another life, he’d have made a great Jedi knight. Being a vigilante loyal only to justice was always better than being any kind of head of state.

On the World Fantasy Award: The award is a bust of H.P. Lovecraft, a notable author but also notorious racist. Nnedi Okorafor, who won the award in 2011, wrote that she approved of China Miéville's solution, who claims: "I put it out of sight, in my study, where only I can see it, and I have turned it to face the wall. So I am punishing the little fucker like the malevolent clown he was, I can look at it and remember the honour, and above all I am writing behind Lovecraft’s back.

All of them watched the footage, even Fisayo. After it finished, none of them said a word, yet in their minds, they saw plenty. Jacobs saw an end to living with parents who refused to accept him. His sister Fisayo saw all of Lagos in flames. Seven saw infinite possibilities and a people from outer space that could make the world embrace and love everyone. Rome saw the rise of Rome.

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.

My tribe is obsessed with innovation and technology, but it is small, private, and, as I said, we don’t like to leave Earth. We prefer to explore the universe by traveling inward, as opposed to outward. No Himba has ever gone to Oomza Uni. So me being the only one on the ship was not that surprising. However, just because something isn’t surprising doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with.

She flies higher than she’s ever flown before, maybe she is trying to leave the earth. She isn’t sure, she isn’t thinking about it. She’s far in her mind, deep in her own thoughts, the air on her wings feels amazing, she is swimming, rolling through the air as if it’s water. She lifts her head as she flies and lets out a series of loud chirps. And that’s when she sees it. The largest bat ever. Flying faster than any hawk or eagle or owl, roaring like some sort of monster. She doesn’t know the human word ‘dragon’ otherwise she would call it that. There is no time to flee. No time to turn. No time to shriek, and no pain. It is like being thrown into the stars.

I couldn’t see the end of the corridor, so I stared at the entrance. The ship was a magnificent piece of living technology. Third Fish was a Miri 12, a type of ship closely related to a shrimp. Miri 12s were stable calm creatures with natural exoskeletons that could withstand the harshness of space. They were genetically enhanced to grow three breathing chambers within their bodies. Scientists planted rapidly growing plants within these three enormous rooms that not only produced oxygen from the CO2 directed in from other parts of the ship, but also absorbed benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene. This was some of the most amazing technology I’d ever read about. Once settled on the ship, I was determined to convince someone to let me see one of these amazing rooms. But at the moment, I wasn’t thinking about the technology of the ship. I was on the threshold now, between home and my future.