Stories Matter. Many Stories Matter.

Death Would Be A Complete Knowingness, But What Frightened Him Was This: Not Knowing Beforehand What It Was He Would Know.

You Must Never Behave As If Your Life Belongs To A Man. Do You Hear Me?' Aunty Ifeka Said. 'your Life Belongs To You And You Alone.

I Think My First General Rule Is That Most Of My Experiences Are Not That Interesting. It's Usually Other People's Experiences. It's Not That Entirely Conscious. Somebody Tells Me A Story Or, You Know, Repeats An Anecdote That Somebody Else Told Them And I Just Feel Like I Have To Write It Down So I Don't Forget - That Means For Me, Something Made It Fiction-worthy. Interesting Things Never Happen To Me, So Maybe Two Or Three Times When They Do, I Have To Use Them, So I Write Them Down.

Culture Does Not Make People - People Make Culture. So If It Is In Fact True That The Full Humanity Of Women Is Not Our Culture, We Must Make It Our Culture. [...] A Feminist Is A Man Or A Woman Who Says, 'yes There Is A Problem With Gender As It Is Today And We Must Fix It. We Must Do Better.'

Then She Wished, More Rationally, That She Could Love Him Without Needing Him. Need Gave Him Power Without His Trying; Need Was The Choicelessness She Often Felt Around Him.