A biography for Uzodinma Iwealahasn’t been written yet.
“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.”
“It takes time for people to understand how to hold leaders accountable.”
“Sometimes writing it is a good way to understand something.”
“Washington, D.C., is not a subtle city. Unlike the capitals of other once-great powers which, many hundreds of years old, present a more seamless meshing of monumental memory and daily life, D.C. is constructed to shout, 'Here I am! I am powerful!' to the world.”
“It's a beautiful thing, the desire to help a fellow human who is maybe in a rough spot.”
“My parents have raised me and my three siblings to be aware of the privilege we have been afforded and the responsibility it brings.”
“It takes time for people to understand how, as an individual, I can have an impact on the way that society works.”
“Medicine has an immediate impact, the ability to do good. Writing is such a solitary activity.”
“There are skills you pick up on in a clinical environment in terms of how to ask questions, what to look for, how to listen that serve one well when trying to write.”
“I suppose I'm pulled towards fiction because I really like the freedom it gives me.”
“'Beasts of No Nation' began when I read an article about child soldiers in Sierra Leone during my final year of high school.”
“Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned?”
“I love playing with language and the rhythm of language - for some reason, this seems so much easier for me to do when I get to make things up than when writing nonfiction.”
“I think 'Beasts of No Nation' is a novel that hopefully will affect each person who reads it in a different way.”
“Many great novels have shown a world torn to shreds by the brutality of war. To do so, their authors ground their texts in the details of destruction and decay.”
“The kidnapped person is so tantalizingly close, kept alive by a devastating hope. Kidnapping or hostage-taking is perhaps the most disturbing form of terror because it turns this hope into a liability that can paralyze.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Anybody who tells you they're not scared when starting a new book project is a very good liar.”
“In my senior year of high school, I read an article in 'Newsweek' about child soldiers in Sierra Leone. I felt a sense of shock - this was happening in the region where I'm from, and people don't know about it. I wanted to understand.”