NNEDI OKORAFOR

'Who Fears Death' addresses the push and pull in African culture that powerful women face when their culture has certain duties and beliefs that can stifle them.

I grew up reading Stephen King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Robert McCammon, Isaac Asimov's nonfiction books, and Roald Dahl.

One of my feet is a whole size longer than the other. One is size ten, the other is size eleven.

I see the world as a magical place. Therefore, it was only natural that magic wafted from my fiction like smoke.

I go to the ocean to calm down, to reconnect with the creator, to just be happy.

I love and am terrified of the water, particularly the ocean.

There's a story in 'Kabu Kabu' called 'Bakasi Man' where I got to explore the mind of a 'bad man.' It was fun.

'Lagoon' is an ambitious novel.

I would try to write 'realistic' fiction, and someone would fly, or there would be a black hole full of demons or a girl who attracted frogs.

I love writing about monsters and food.

It's more fun to write villains. They are more of a challenge, and I get a sick kind of pleasure out of delving into their minds. There's rarely emptiness, and there is almost always deep intelligence.

I love ocean life. I'm fascinated that so much of it remains unexplored by human beings. Diluted seawater consisted of nearly the same concentration of elements and minerals as blood plasma. They've got the same amount of sodium, too.

I think speculative fiction has fewer unspoken prerequisites than literary fiction for writers of color.

Flawed, imperfect creatures! That's what we both are, oga! That's what we ALL are!

People get inspired to write, paint, draw, sing, sculpt, dance in many different ways. And there are many types of art. But the one thing that they all have in common is that they are all a sort of magic. Sometimes the magic flows from one’s fingers, other times it is transferred to the person who experiences the result. Magic has always worked in mysterious ways.

It's ok to care about what other people think, but you should give a little more weight to what you, yourself, think...The habit of thinking is the habit of gaining strength. You're stronger than you believe.

You are not crazy. You are just ready to change.

We cried and sobbed and wept and bled tears. But when we were finished, all we could do was continue living.

I slammed the door in the child's face, a horrific scream trapped in my throat.

All through the night, she battled herself. Or battled to know herself. She fell apart and then put herself back together and then she fell apart again and put herself back together, over and over.

Though I knew I shouldn’t have cared, the words still hurt like pinches, and pinches can be very painful when done in the same place many times in a row.

Funny how all things people don’t understand seem to be ‘cursed’.

Silence is the best answer to a fool.

Is it not the worst pain to know there is a cure for your child's illness and then not be able to obtain it? Oh it must be the one of the worst types of pain in the world.