Chris Abani Quotes

Quotes about:

• What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion.

  Chris Abani

  Simple, Compassion, World

  "On humanity". TED Talks, www.ted.com. February, 2008.

  50 Copy quote

• You know, you can steel your heart against any kind of trouble, any kind of horror. But the simple act of kindness from a complete stranger will unstitch you.

  Chris Abani

  Kindness, Heart, Simple

  "On humanity". TED Talks, www.ted.com. February, 2008.

  17 Copy quote

• What we know about who we are comes from stories. It's the agents of our imagination who really shape who we are.

  Chris Abani

  Imagination, Stories, Agents

  15 Copy quote

• Sometimes we say we want an end to hate or racism or sexism. But we all participate in keeping these structures alive. If everyone decided to relinquish the past what would happen to people who feel that there hasn't been proper atonement made to them? And what happens to the person who feels that the constant atonement is their identity?

  Chris Abani

  Hate, Past, People

  7 Copy quote

• The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things.

  Chris Abani

  Opportunity, Down And, Privilege

  10 Copy quote

• People think that writing is writing, but actually writing is editing. Otherwise, you're just taking notes

  Chris Abani

  Writing, Thinking, Editing

  10 Copy quote

• Nigerians are everywhere. There's an old joke, particularly about the Ibos, that when you finally land on Mars, you're going to find a Nigerian there who has a shop that is selling Coca-Cola--who took a speculative trip 20 years ago and has been waiting for everyone else to arrive.

  Chris Abani

  Years, Land, Waiting

  7 Copy quote

• I have not spoken in three years: not since I left boot camp. It has been three years of a senseless war, and though the reasons for it are clear, and though we will continue to fight until we are ordered to stop--and probably for a while after that--none of us can remember the hate that led us here. We are simply fighting to survive the war. It is a strange place to be at fifteen, bereft of hope and very nearly of your humanity. But that is where I am nonetheless.

  Chris Abani

  War, Hate, Fighting

  Chris Abani (2015). “Song For Night”, p.5, Saqi

  4 Copy quote

• What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion, everyday acts of compassion. In South Africa they have a phrase called ubuntu. Ubuntu comes out of a philosophy that says, the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me.

  Chris Abani

  Philosophy, Compassion, Simple

  "On humanity". Ted Talks, www.ted.com. February, 2008.

  8 Copy quote

• That women are mysterious and unknowable is something every young man grows up believing. Men, on the other hand, never think of themselves as mysterious or confusing, and we are often at a loss as to why women want to figure us out.

  Chris Abani

  Growing Up, Believe, Loss

  10 Copy quote

• Fiction and poetry are my first loves, but the really beautiful lyrical essay can do so much that other forms cannot.

  Chris Abani

  Beautiful, First Love, Fiction

  6 Copy quote

• Fiction is more dangerous than nonfiction because it can seduce better. I think we all know this, know that deeper truths can be approached in fiction than in fact. There are risks for the reader, because after reading certain books you find you have changed irreversibly. There are risks for writers: in China, now, and Ethiopia and other countries right now, writers face real persecution.

  Chris Abani

  Country, Real, Book

  Interview with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

  8 Copy quote

• Since I hold no judgments against my characters, no matter how heinous they might seem, I present them as real people with their own moral centers. We might feel those moral centers are mis-calibrated, but they are there and are the rudders that propel them. This makes reading my work a visceral roller coaster, 'cause the reader must embark on the journey of the protagonist equipped only with his or her own moral center.

  Chris Abani

  Real, Reading, Character

  RUMPUS INTERVIEW with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• Fiction is risky for writers also in that the process of making certain books, of shaping certain narratives, leaves scars and marks on your inner life.

  Chris Abani

  Book, Fiction, Narrative

  Interview with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• In this time of the Internet and nonfiction, to be on an actual bookshelf in an actual bookstore is exciting in itself.

  Chris Abani

  Bookstores, Nonfiction, Internet

  16 Copy quote

• If there was no risk, it wouldn't be art. It wouldn't be worth making. There is risk even in a fairy tale. Fiction is closest to pure narrative, and pure narrative is simply the logic we try to impose on an ever-changing reality.

  Chris Abani

  Art, Reality, Risk

  Interview with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• The problem is we're looking for something that doesn't exist. We're looking for authenticity. There is no such thing as authenticity. There is either good art or bad art. Art is never about its content. It's about its scaffolding.

  Chris Abani

  Art, Problem, Authenticity

  Interview with Carlye Archibeque, www.poetix.net.

  4 Copy quote

• Before you speak, my friend, remember, a spiritual man contain his anger. Angry words are like slap in de face.

  Chris Abani

  Spiritual, Anger, Men

  Chris Abani (2005). “GraceLand: A Novel”, p.9, Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• The truth is that History, with its imposing capital H, is simply the amalgamation of many quotidian lives lived in very ordinary ways. History is always personal. If you read Holocaust survivor or American slavery survivor narratives, you realize all too well that these great Historical moments were personal to someone at some time.

  Chris Abani

  Holocaust, Historical, Ordinary

  "The Rumpus Interview With Chris Abani". Interview with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

  12 Copy quote

• If you encounter a human shadow burned permanently into the concrete in Hiroshima, you realize that this is the trace of a very ordinary person now elevated into the emblematic. Time, shame, complicity, or discomfort are the only things that make us pretend History is impersonal or far removed from the power and consequences of our every lived moment.

  Chris Abani

  Shadow, Encounters, Ordinary

  RUMPUS INTERVIEW with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Believe, Writing, Ideas

  4 Copy quote

• What I do is create a lens through my work that corrects my readers' cognitive dissonance and says: you will see all of it - not what you want or what makes you comfortable, but all of it. And you will not erase what displeases you.

  Chris Abani

  Lenses, Want, Cognitive Dissonance

  "The Rumpus Interview With Chris Abani". Interview with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

  6 Copy quote

• I read everywhere. It's like a bodily function. I don't need quiet. I write and read with the TV on. I follow the TV show while I read. TV doesn't require a lot of brainpower.

  Chris Abani

  Reading, Writing, Tv Shows

  Interview with Amy Sutherland, www.bostonglobe.com. March 22, 2014.

  6 Copy quote

• My friend Ronald Gottesman says...that the cause of all our trouble is the belief in an essential, pure identity: religious, ethnic, historical, ideological.

  Chris Abani

  Religious, Historical, Identity

  7 Copy quote

• Men do communicate, often very directly, but women sometimes cannot accept how simple what we have to say is. We seldom play games--we aren't that sophisticated.

  Chris Abani

  Men, Simple, Play

  7 Copy quote

Page 1 of 3

← Prev

1

2

3

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin