Chris Abani Quotes

The truth is messy. It's raw and uncomfortable. You can't blame people for preferring lies.

A truth that disheartens because it is true is of more value than the most stimulating of falsehoods.

Truth is a rough, honest, helter-skelter terrier that none like to see brought into their drawing rooms.

What ails the truth is that it is mainly uncomfortable, and often dull. The human mind seeks something more amusing, and more caressing.

Truth is so often disconcerting.

I think little of people who will deny their history because it doesn't present the picture they would like.

Having our fundamental assumptions about life challenged is never a comfortable thing.

You know the problem, we don't want to believe what we know.

No one wants to hear the truth if it isn't what they want to hear.

The kids from the streets don't want preaching or messages. They want what they can identify with. They want to hear about the reality of their situation, not fairy tales. They don't care if it's ugly; they just want reality.

I love discordancy. It makes people ill at ease and wakes up a part of their brain that's normally asleep.

Personally, I like films that make me a little bit uncomfortable because I think you're uncomfortable when something is real.

It may offend us to hear our own thoughts expressed by others: we are not sure enough of their souls.

I think there's a joy to be had in taking readers where they just don't want to go. If you are writing a properly realist novel, then don't blink. Why not see something for what it is and render it truthfully? I find it a good way of going about writing - not to blink.

Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.

People can choose between the sweet lie or the bitter truth. I say the bitter truth, but many people don't want to hear it.

I don't want to make people feel better.

When people hear my music, they ain't really hearing about no shiny stuff, the glamorous life. They're going to hear that gritty, slum.

As artists we are here to make you uncomfortable with the complexity of your reality.

I'm a big fan of not letting the audience of off the hook, as they say. I like it when things feel real, and that's oftentimes not comfortable.

Be it life or death, we crave only reality.

No. Harsh truth was better than comfortable lies. It had to be.

The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed.

You make real progress when somebody is honest enough to say something that's really uncomfortable. Of course when you're a candidate's wife and when you're first lady and the first African-American first lady to boot, that is very, very hard to do.

The truth is seldom welcome, especially at dinner.