41 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes on Inspiring Boss Women
They themselves mocked Africa, trading stories of absurdity, of stupidity, and they felt safe to mock, because it was a mockery born of longing, and of the heartbroken desire to see a place made whole again.
How can we resist exploitation if we don’t have the tools to understand exploitation. Which of your favourite quotes by Chimamanda did we miss?
“Racism should never have happened and so you don’t get a cookie for reducing it.”
“I often make the mistake of thinking that something that is obvious to me is obvious to everyone else.”
Masculinity is a hard, small cage, and we put boys inside this cage.
“I am a person who believes in asking questions, in not conforming for the sake of conforming. I am deeply dissatisfied – about so many things, about injustice, about the way the world works – and in some ways, my dissatisfaction drives my storytelling.”
“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 Quotes
“Why did people ask “What is it about?” as if a novel had to be about only one thing.”
“I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change.”
“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.”
“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.”
Quotes by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Of course I am not worried about intimating men. The type of man who will be intimidated is exactly the type of man I have no interest in. – Quotes by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The truth has become an insult.
“To choose to writes is to reject silence.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes
“I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.”
Creative writing programmes are not very necessary. They just exist so that people like us can make a living.
“I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.”
“We do not just risk repeating history if we sweep it under the carpet, we also risk being myopic about our present.”
“The real tragedy of our postcolonial world is not that the majority of people had no say in whether or not they wanted this new world; rather, it is that the majority have not been given the tools to negotiate this new world.”
I am trying to unlearn many lessons of gender I internalized while growing up. But I sometimes still feel vulnerable in the face of gender expectations.
“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.”
“Our histories cling to us. We are shaped by where we come from.”
“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.”
“Our histories cling to us. We are shaped by where we come from.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes
Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.
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.
“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”
Never ever accept ‘Because You Are A Woman’ as a reason for doing or not doing anything.
“We teach girls shame. ‘Close your legs. Cover yourself.’ We make them feel as though being born female they’re already guilty of something. And so, girls grow up to be women who cannot say they have desire. They grow up to be women who silence themselves. They grow up to be women who cannot say what they truly think. And they grow up — and this is the worst thing we do to girls — they grow up to be women who have turned pretense into an art form.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes
Minister to the world in a way that can change it. Minister radically in a real, active, practical, get your hands dirty wa4. Your standard ideologies will not always fit your life. Because life is messy.
I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.
“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 Adichie Sayings
“Some people ask: ‘Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?’ Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general – but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women. That the problem was not about being human, but specifically about being a female human. For centuries, the world divided human beings into two groups and then proceeded to exclude and oppress one group. It is only fair that the solution to the problem acknowledge that.”
Some people ask: “Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?” Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general—but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women. – Quotes by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“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.”
“You can’t write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.”
Please love by giving and by taking. Give and be given. If you are only giving and not taking, you’ll know. You’ll know from that small and true voice inside you that we females are so often socialized to silence. Don’t silence that voice. Dare to take.
Racism should never have happened and so you don’t get a cookie for reducing it.
“You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Your life belongs to you and you alone.”
There are many different ways to be poor in the world but increasingly there seems to be one single way to be rich. – Quotes by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The real tragedy of our postcolonial world is not that the majority of people had no say in whether or not they wanted this new world; rather, it is that the majority have not been given the tools to negotiate this new world.
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