Lola Shoneyin

“When a plan does not go right, you plot again. One day you will succeed. One day you will be able to damage the person who hurts you so completely that they will never be able to recover.”

“The world has no patience for spinsters. It spits them out”

“Your father left me for a beautiful woman. I told him I was pregnant but he didn’t want to hear it. He sliced me like okra and left.”

“Baba Segi only comes to deposit his seed in my womb. He doesn’t smile or tickle me. He doesn’t make jokes about my youth; he just rams me into the mattress…”

“Let us not allow the world to see our shame, let us keep our secrets from those who may seek to mock us”

“Even when the boys teased me over flap of flesh that circled my neck, I wasn't bothered. I looked at them and sniggered, knowing their father's fathers could not have a fraction of the wealth i have accummulated.”

“My fingers liked the feel of money. My eye liked to see the piles of money swell. I worshipped money.”

“A real woman must always do the things she wants to do, and in her own time too. You must never allow yourself to be rushed into doing things you're not ready for.”

“I like doing things that put Africa and Africans on the map. My job and the stuff that I do allows me to come in contact with so many talented, incredibly hardworking people. Young but doing incredible stuff. I want the world to see them. And when I say the world, the truth is, in fact, more than anything, I’m talking about Africa, as in the African world.”

“The choices we have to make in this world are hard and bitter. Sometimes we have no choices at all.”

“Once you crash the idea of normal in your mind, all impossibilities become possible.”