Top 80 Quotes & Sayings by Uzodinma Iweala - Page 2

There are some people who will tell you oil is the greatest thing that ever happened to Nigeria. And there are other people who will tell you it's the worst thing that ever happened.

We grew up going to church, and I believe in God. I don't know that I have the ability to define what or who or how God is. You know, I think that religion kind of messes people up in that regard. That's just my own personal philosophy.

No one can really relate to somebody who has given up entirely.

I find the sort of unwitting European American outsider who wants to come to Africa to help is a very problematic construction. It's problematic because you don't want to tell people don't aid, don't help, when people feel a need to.

It takes time for people to understand how, as an individual, I can have an impact on the way that society works.

The images that we see of Africa are so... that are so engrained in our minds are of this place that is terrible - like hell on earth. And that doesn't acknowledge the positive things - the many, many, many positive things - that people are doing.

I don't think there is enough understanding of how diverse black America actually is.

I would say, number one, don't worry about getting published. Just write. Number two, just write. Three is make sure you read.

I don't think that one should beat himself or herself over the head if immediately you're not like Jesus Christ or, you know, Gandhi or whoever. But I think the idea is to... to look at those examples and try to... try to operate in a way that every day you live or every interaction you have pushes you further along to operating with that mindset.

There are books that are made for you to sit and puzzle over and spend time with.

Sometimes you just wanna go out, see your action movie, be done with it, come home. You know, and, like, you see 'The Matrix' or whatever, you see whatever film it is, and you're like, 'Oh cool,' whatever.

I hear a good song and I start thinking, 'Oh shoot. You know there's a story that can be told to this,' and whatnot.

Everybody has an equal right to be on this earth and to be happy on this earth and to achieve on this earth. That's kind of the way that I would like to try and go about living.

There are multiple levels of 'we' and multiple groups that can constitute this idea of who we are. We need to be aware of who we are including and excluding.

I think, all too often, this society has too monolithic a definition of what a black American is.

It takes time for people to understand how to hold leaders accountable.

It's a beautiful thing, the desire to help a fellow human who is maybe in a rough spot.

I think the more complex your idea of who someone is or who a particular group is, the less able you are to separate 'we' and 'outside' or 'us and them.' I think that that's something that we really, really need to pay attention to.

People don't talk about the amount of destruction in terms of human lives that happen, whether it's through slavery, or through, for example, what Belgium was doing in the Congo - the fragmentation of society that happened after that destruction of human life.

I feel like it's not Africans who are afraid of China's rise in Africa. It's the West that's afraid of China's rise in Africa.