Lemn Sissay

“A blog is neither a diary nor a journal. Many people think of blogging in relation to those two things, confessional or practical. It is neither but includes elements of both.”

“My foster parents were very religious. They told me that they had not decided to take me in, rather that it was God that had decided it for them.”

“When somebody takes a child from their native culture, that is in itself an act of aggression.”

“I think we are in an age where cash pays for time and space. The more cash you have, the bigger space you can buy and the smaller the technology to put in it.”

“Technology will never last if it ignores human beings' basic instinct to express and discover through expression.”

“To Western parents that want to adopt a child, I would say to people that money is not everything, wealth does not matter.”

“I have spent most of my adult life proving that I existed. A blog is an accessible way of doing this - there is a date and place in cyberspace that I existed a year ago, to the day, and the proof is still there.”

“My real mother is a survivor, very strong and respected by the people who know her, but our relationship is not easy - but then, it was never going to be.”

“I do... to this day, think that success is being able to look in the mirror and know that I'm alright on that day. I don't believe I've made it–I believe that I'm making it. I believe that I've found my past so that I can live in the present, it's the most important thing to me. The books and the plays and the touring and the gigs and the speeches and the cash...it all pales into insignificance when compared with knowing that I didn't do anything wrong, and I'm going to be okay now.”