“Love and freedom are such hideous words. So many cruelties have been done in their name.”

“That each man is the sum of his choices is nothing less than the truth. And each, perhaps, is also something else.”

“...but as his father used to say when he had a few drinks taken, you couldn't expect bloody miracles when you were talking about God.”

“Everything is in the way the material is composed.”

“We still tell each other that we are lucky to be alive, when our being alive has almost nothing to do with luck, but with geography, pigmentation, and international exchange rates.”

“God and government can work together”

“When it comes down to it, government is simply an abandonment of responsibility on the assumption that there are people, other than ourselves, who really know how to manage things. But the governme...”

“In our country let us reject violence and selfishness which could destroy Nigeria unity.”

“I have this feeling that immigrants unwittingly help to keep peace between nations by being scapegoats for national ills that would otherwise be blamed on neighbours.”

“An hour later, Amina stood at a pay phone in a mall hallway, where poop and perfume and the grease from the food court formed the kind of atmosphere you might find in Jupiter's red spot”

“Stability and security are just illusions. But they are necessary illusions because without them there would be no way of going on.”

“[W]hen it's slow, they send you home, and when it's busy, they expect you to stay late. They also expect you to be able to come in to cover someone's shift if a co-worker gets sick at the last minu...”

“Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to p...”

“A man may beg, but a woman has to sell.”