Binyavanga Wainaina

“There's no point for me in being a writer and having all these blocked places where I feel I can't think freely and imagine freely. There just really is no point.”

“In kindergarten, we had this Irish Catholic headmistress called Sister Leonie, and I remember she would tell us, say, to put the crayons in the box. I remember thinking, 'Why is everyone fin...”

“I am quite excited that Moi is leaving. Kenyans have changed. We have a free press, and it is no longer a situation of 'follow in my footsteps.'”

“What is astonishing is that globalised technology, like Whatsapp and Viber, really gives a lot of leeway to negotiating spaces and to keeping one's identity. So people are able to be more re...”

“Every one, we, we homosexuals, are people, and we need our oxygen to breathe.”

“We are a mixed up people. We have mixed up ways of naming, too... When my father's brothers and sisters first went to colonial schools, they had to produce a surname. They also had to show t...”

“It's like I was always not quite sure even how to move in space somehow; I would watch people and then copy them. I found it really hard to walk straight. My brother was always on at me for...”

“Always end your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances. Because you care.”

“Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel prize.”