Nigerian author (1966- )
He knew that scar, that pain, that shame, that degradation that no metaphor could contain, inscribing it on his body. And yet beyond that, he was that scar, carved by hate and smallness and fear onto the world's face. He and everyone like him, until the earth was aflame with scarred black men dying in trees of fire.
CHRIS ABANI
Graceland
My mom taught me to read when I was two or three. When I was five I read and wrote well enough to do my nine-year older brother's homework in exchange for chocolate or cigarettes. By the time I was 10, I was reading Orwell, Tolstoy's War and Peace, and the Koran. I was reading comic books too.
CHRIS ABANI
The Boston Globe, Mar. 22, 2014
Remember always that freedom, love, kindness, honour, justice and truth are never to be taken for granted--but worked at, struggled with and fought for, at whatever cost. For it is this that makes us human and builds a bridge to our true nature, which is spirit.
CHRIS ABANI
Kalakuta Republic
I think a book that is over 400 pages should be split in two. I don't know that there's anything that interesting that can go on for 700 pages. I think that is a little bit indulgent.
CHRIS ABANI
The Boston Globe, Mar. 22, 2014
I woke with the taste of your apple pie in my mouth,
carried over no doubt from my dreams.
It made me realize how much I miss you and our home.
CHRIS ABANI
Hands Washing Water
I have been thinking, my love, and on my return,
I would like to reveal the truth of us, of myself.
I am tired of this restrictive masculine role.
CHRIS ABANI
Hands Washing Water
We go over the same territory, like a mower
religiously eating grass that will grow again.
CHRIS ABANI
Sanctificum
But how long before this desperate wickedness overruns the qualms of good people? Before the desire for the smell of cooking meat, the softness of flesh, breaks us all?
CHRIS ABANI
Hands Washing Water
In that year, I came to question everything I had believed in before. The only thing I never gave up on was the conviction that there can be no concession in the face of tyranny and oppression.
CHRIS ABANI
Kalakuta Republic
I didn't leave Africa, I left Nigeria, and for political reasons. But ... I've never, never left Africa, and I certainly never left what it means to be Ibo. That is something you carry with you.
CHRIS ABANI
"In Conversation with author Chris Abani", Truthdig, Apr. 18, 2006
The problem with mango plucking is the fruit falls too quickly; and harvest season is over far too soon.
CHRIS ABANI
Kalakuta Republic
He too, it seemed, had come to believe that he could somehow escape history. That it was possible, and even desirable, to live in a perpetual present.
CHRIS ABANI
The Secret History of Las Vegas
I truly believe that writing is a continuum--so the different genres and forms are simply stops along the same continuum. Different ideas that need to be expressed sometimes require different forms for the ideas to float better.
CHRIS ABANI
interview, UTNE Reader, Jun. 2010
The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things.
CHRIS ABANI
interview, UTNE Reader, Jun. 2010
I spend my life hustling for small money, staying one step ahead of de police. But I will not do dat all my life. You see, I done read Napoleon Hill and as a thinking man, and with de grace of God, I go be millionaire before I reach thirty.
CHRIS ABANI
Graceland
See you spend your whole life fighting with your father and no time on making your own life. What will you do when he dies? Fight yourself?
CHRIS ABANI
Graceland
My finger travels the longest carved line on the face, the thickest welt, up that face. From the base of the jaw all the way up the cheek, stopping just short of the abalone shell eye. These lines cut into the wood are meant to mimic the ancient facial tattoos that marked these ancestors as men, as warriors, as worthy of carrying their lineage back into the place of death and yet forward into the place of tomorrow.
CHRIS ABANI
The Face: Cartography of the Void
Before you speak, my friend, remember, a spiritual man contain his anger. Angry words are like slap in de face.
CHRIS ABANI
Graceland
As with much of the world's problems, they become public--or much more of interest--the moment they begin to impact the West.
CHRIS ABANI
"In Conversation with author Chris Abani", Truthdig, Apr. 18, 2006
There was a positive side to not trying at something: you could always pretend that your life would have been different if you had.
CHRIS ABANI
Graceland