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Memorable Quotes From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Guardian Webchat

August 3, 2016 saynigeria Celebrity Gist, INTERVIEWS, NEWS 0

Memorable Quotes From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Guardian Webchat
Memorable Quotes From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Guardian Webchat

Memorable Quotes From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Guardian Webchat

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie finally had the webchat session with fans on Guardian UK.

The acclaimed writer responded to various questions ranging from her works of fiction, to her famous TED/TEDx talks. Adichie also had insightful responses to questions on feminism, Michelle Obama’s hair and the idea of holding characters to the same moral high ground as we would in real life.

She also gave a thoughtful response to a fan who has self-doubts about his writing.

“Self doubt is part of the creative process. I hate to have it but I also realise it is part of the process,” Adichie said, adding, “Otherwise you become complacent, which is cancerous for creativity. I generally write the kind of books that I like to read.”

Here are our favourite quotes from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s  responses on the Guardian UK webchat with fans:

On writing from a ‘gender-neutral point of view’, she said:

“I don’t know what writing neutrally means. I think people are different, more than men and women are different. So you may think men are not expressive but there are SOME men who are. Just as there are women who are not expressive. So your male character can in fact be expressive. I generally think people should write what they think they do best – and biko rapukene comments na inbox. If you choose to write, you have to accept that there are people who will not like what you write, and that is perfectly okay. You don’t have to please everyone.”

On if she will ever write an ‘over-arching book’, she said:

“No, I will not be writing an ‘over-arching book’ about the West African ‘struggles.’ I am just reading a lovely book called In Our Strange Gardens, about the Nazi occupation of France. It is painful and beautiful. It would never occur to me to want the writer to write a more ‘over-arching book about the struggles in Western Europe.’ It is the absolute specificity of our stories that make them universal.”

On how she feels about being a writer and making a living writing, she said:

“Quite happy with ‘writer.’ I am still in awe, wondrous grateful awe, that I can do what I love and earn a living doing it. I am at my happiest when my writing is going well. And I am always watching and listening and ‘collecting material.’”

On if she has any ‘feminist theory’ blueprint she uses in shaping her female characters:

“Haven’t read much feminist theory and generally try to keep ‘theory’ away from my creative space, if that makes sense. I learned much about feminism from watching women in the world. I so long for a world in which women everywhere are no longer taught to link shame and sexuality.”

On if she had any contacts that helped get her a book deal, she said:

“Nope. No contacts. I was completely unknown. I wrote short stories, got many rejections and then finally got an acceptance. I wrote a large and terrible novel that I sent out and that was rejected multiple times. And then I wrote Purple Hibiscus and a nice agent said she would ‘take a chance on me.’”

On if she is a confident writer or one who doubts the strength of her written works, she said:

“Self doubt is part of the creative process. I hate to have it but I also realise it is part of the process. Otherwise you become complacent, which is cancerous for creativity. I generally write the kind of books that I like to read.”

To a 50-year-old white male who wants to write a story about a Bengali girl but feels the task is insurmountable, she said:

“I think the first question is: WHY do you want to write about a young Bengali girl? There are still wonderful stories to be told about 50-year-old white men. If it is feeling insurmountable, perhaps that’s a sign.”

And to this fan who felt her response to the 50-year-old white male hungering to write about a ‘disadvantaged Bengali girl’ was very ‘short-sighted’, she said:

 “It’s unfortunate that you seem to assume that if a white middle aged man doesn’t write about a Bengali girl, then the story of Bengali girls will not be written. There are in fact many Bengalis who can write about Bengali girls – and it probably doesn’t feel ‘insurmountable’ to them. And ‘disadvantaged Bengali girl’ is a very troubling way of framing an idea of a story. It already suggests that this character will be seen through the lenses of her ‘disadvantage’ alone. People are people. ‘Disadvantaged’ people also have agency, and dream, and think, and desire. Sometimes how one frames a story determines whether or not we will see the fullness of a character.”

On which Achebe novel is her favourite, she said:

“I think Arrow of God is a classic. One of the best novels ever written. It is a paean to a changing world, and so beautiful and complex, and also so simple – which is truly difficult to do.”

On if it is important to hold characters to the same ‘moral high ground as people in real life’, she said:

“I think you should read fiction however you want to. We bring our own stories to the stories we read, and I respect that. I sadly am not able to inhabit this ‘moral high ground.’ Too high for me. I think that to be human is to be flawed. And honest stories about human beings involves failures of different kinds.”
On what she thinks about creative writing courses, she said:

“They can be helpful if you are clear about why you want to go and if you manage your expectations. Where to start? Write. Just write. Start. And read as much as you can. Read widely and read different things, and sometimes while immersed in the multitude voices of others, you just might find your own.”

On if she wishes that Michelle Obama wears her natural hair, she said:

“No, I actually do not wish Michelle Obama had natural hair because then Barack Obama would not have won the elections and what a loss that would have been to the world. When her daughters were younger, they were viciously attacked because their hair was twisted. There is a very ugly side to American populism.”

On being a mum, she said:

“Most exciting – a new and unique kind of love has come into my life, glorious and joyful and encompassing and full of discovery. Most terrifying – the anxiety-filled desire to protect her from everything and the terror-filled sense that I cannot.”

To folks who fight for the equality of the sexes but do not want to be called feminists because they feel the movement is ‘too tainted’, she said:

“Tell that someone to look up ‘feminist’ in the dictionary. If you are a doctor who treats the heart and someone says oh, so you’re a cardiologist, you don’t say: no, I prefer to be known as a doctor who treats the heart.”

You can see the complete webchat here.

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