Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes

Quotes about:

• The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Stories, Brilliant, Problem

  FaceBook post by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Mar 03, 2013

  120 Copy quote

• Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  People, Broken, Empowering

  "The danger of a single story". TED Talks, www.ted.com. July 2009.

  153 Copy quote

• There are people who dislike you because you do not dislike yourself.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  People, Like You, Dislike

  98 Copy quote

• Never ever accept 'Because You Are A Woman' as a reason for doing or not doing anything.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Reason, Accepting

  Speech at Wellesley College, time.com. 2015.

  126 Copy quote

• All over the world, girls are raised to be make themselves likeable, to twist themselves into shapes that suit other people. Please do not twist yourself into shapes to please. Don't do it. If someone likes that version of you, that version of you that is false and holds back, then they actually just like that twisted shape, and not you. And the world is such a gloriously multifaceted, diverse place that there are people in the world who will like you, the real you, as you are.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Girl, Real, People

  Speech at Wellesley College, time.com. 2015.

  148 Copy quote

• If you start thinking about being likable you are not going to tell your story honestly.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Thinking, Stories, Honestly

  107 Copy quote

• Culture does not make people. People make culture.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  People, Doe, Culture

  "We Should All Be Feminists". Book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, July 29, 2014.

  75 Copy quote

• To choose to write is to reject silence.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Writing, Silence, Rejects

  "Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: 'Fear of causing offence becomes a fetish'" by Nicole Lee, www.theguardian.com. May 11, 2015.

  109 Copy quote

• We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls: 'You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you will threaten the man.' Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices, always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now, marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support, but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don't teach boys the same?

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Inspiring, Girl, Women

  "We should all be feminists". TED Talks, www.ted.com. December 2012.

  152 Copy quote

• You deserve to take up space.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Space, Deserve

  12 Copy quote

• I am a strong believer in the ability of human beings to change for the better. I am a strong believer in trying to change what we are dissatisfied with.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Strong, Trying, Change For The Better

  "Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Continental Divides". Interview with Joseph Klarl, www.interviewmagazine.com. May 14, 2013.

  33 Copy quote

• If you don't understand, ask questions. If you're uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway. It's easy to tell when a question is coming from a good place. Then listen some more. Sometimes people just want to feel heard. Here's to possibilities of friendship and connection and understanding.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Asking Questions, People, Understanding

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013). “Americanah”, p.354, Anchor

  119 Copy quote

• Privilege blinds, because it's in its nature to blind. Don't let it blind you too often. Sometimes you will need to push it aside in order to see clearly.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Order, Needs, Privilege

  76 Copy quote

• Our histories cling to us. We are shaped by where we come from.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Where We Come

  12 Copy quote

• We teach girls shame; close your legs, cover yourself, we make them feel as though by being born female they're already guilty of something.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Girl, Female, Legs

  "We should all be feminists". TED Talks, www.ted.com. December 2012.

  115 Copy quote

• I often make the mistake of thinking that something that is obvious to me is obvious to everyone else.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Mistake, Thinking, Obvious

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014). “We Should All Be Feminists”, p.9, Vintage

  10 Copy quote

• When we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Stories, Paradise, Kind

  "The danger of a single story". TED Talk, www.ted.com. July, 2009.

  16 Copy quote

• Of course I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Motivational, Strong Women, Empowering

  115 Copy quote

• Your life belongs to you and you alone.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Feeling Stuck, Yellow Sun

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2008). “Half of a Yellow Sun”, p.283, Anchor

  10 Copy quote

• The idea that sex is something a woman gives a man, and she loses something when she does that, which again for me is nonsense. I want us to raise girls differently where boys and girls start to see sexuality as something that they own, rather than something that a boy takes from a girl.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Girl, Sex, Boys

  "Feminism Is Fashionable For Nigerian Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie". Interview with Michel Martin, wnpr.org. March 18, 2014.

  99 Copy quote

• The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn't have the weight of gender expectations.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Self, Expectations, Would Be

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014). “We Should All Be Feminists”, p.18, Vintage

  74 Copy quote

• She could not complain about not having shoes when the person she was talking to had no legs.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Talking, Shoes, Complaining

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009). “The Thing Around Your Neck”, p.86, Anchor

  26 Copy quote

• I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity. And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Want, Apologetic, Femininity

  "We should all be feminists". TEDxEuston, www.ted.com. December 2012.

  64 Copy quote

• Our society teaches a woman at a certain age who is unmarried to see it as a deep personal failure. While a man at a certain age who is unmarried has not quite come around to making his pick.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Men, Age, Our Society

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014). “We Should All Be Feminists”, p.16, Vintage

  94 Copy quote

• All over the world, there are so many magazine articles and books telling women what to do, how to be and not to be, in order to attract or please men. There are far fewer guides for men about pleasing women.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Book, Men, Order

  "We Should All Be Feminists". Book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, July 29, 2014.

  45 Copy quote

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