"I am saddened by the fact that most women, especially in my part of the country, are trained from childhood to regard themselves as intellectually weak and incapable of attaining the highest peak in intellectual development."

"It is well to dream... as long as we live, we shall continue to dream. But it is also important to remember that like babies dreams are conceived but not all dreams are born alive. Some are aborted. Others are stillborn."

"When I read a book, I look out for the message the author is trying to pass across to the reader. Does the work contain wisdom? Have I learnt anything from it? I also look out for entertainment. Have I been sufficiently entertained?"

"Feminism is a laudable theory. I like how it raises our awareness of the discrimination against women, and I sanction the equality of men and women, girl and boy that it advocates."

"As salt is the taste to food so as a healthy communication is the taste to a loving and happy marriage."

"If you want to be a good writer, write what you deeply feel you should write, not what you feel the audience will like."

"Selection of adequate and efficient methods of financing, in addition to organisational delivery structure for health services, is essential, if a country is set to achieve its national objective of providing health for all."

"The hope that somewhere, somehow, someone may have benefitted from my ideas makes me feel I have made my little contribution to humanity. In addition to that, the national and international recognition is simply great"

"I would say that life demands that we do not give up, no matter how hard it looks. I have lived by the simple code contained in almost all religions, believe in God and do good works. (Remember God does not leave anybody behind)."

"Hard work runs through my blood. It does not kill, but laziness does. If I were to write about myself I would have hundreds of titles, maybe a title for every page."

"...the world gotta burn before we can build a new one. We just got different ideas about what kinda fire we need."

"(Chapter 13, Page 138)"

"(Chapter 4, Page 42)"

"The foster parents had said that she would end up nowhere, then you could make up wherever you wanted to be, you could make it real. You could, for example, paint it into existence."

"(Chapter 4, Page 43)"

"(Chapter 7, Page 76)"

"You are allowed to feel safe, " Miss Virtue said. Bitter blinked, the tears heated her eyes because the words were so simple, yet so heavy with permission."

"(Chapter 1, Page 6)"

"For a moment, there was the scream of tires and the mad chime of broken glass, the soft petals of white lilies, and a clod of dirt breaking apart in Feyi’s hand, but she brushed it all aside like smoke."

"“I think we’re just figuring out how to survive a world on fire…that it’s okay to be alive.”"

"The revolution needs artists, just like it needs healers and storytellers, just like it needs the organizers and protesters. It's all one big organism working together."

"(Chapter 1, Page 2)"

"Feyi felt like a monster and a traitor, but it was fine, it had to happen.”"

"(Chapter 5, Page 56)"

"(Chapter 1, Page 5)"

"Angels aren't pretty pictures in old holy books, just like monsters aren't ugly pictures. It's all just people, doing hard things or doing bad things.”"

"(chapter 1)"

"(Chapter 1, Page 18)"

"As Jam watched, its fur softened and it shifted its stance just a little, draining the menace away. Well, little girl, it replied, I supposed you can call me Pet.”"

"Feyi had already decided who she wanted to be that night, so she stared right back at him, unabashed, drinking in his terra-cotta skin and dark copper beard.”"

"He raised his head as Bitter emerged from the office, and his face broke into a huge smile. It made the blood rush to Bitter's face, how openly Aloe showed his pleasure at her presence. Sometimes she wondered how he found the courage to flash emotions as if no one could hurt him with them."

"Her mother focused on her, cupping her cheek in a chalky hand. ‘Monsters don’t look like anything, doux-doux. That’s the whole point. That’s the whole problem.’”"

"We bled a lot and Saul gave us the injection himself, but the Ada has no scar so perhaps this is a memory.”"

"(Part 1, Chapter 1, Page 22)"

"(Part 1, Chapter 1, Page 18)"

"There shouldn’t be any monsters left in Lucille. The city used to have them, of course—what city didn’t? They used to be everywhere, thick in the air and oﬀices, in the streets and in people’s own homes. They used to be the police and teachers and judges and even the mayor; yeah, the mayor used to be a monster.”"

"Meanwhile, Ala continued to watch her child. After all, the Ada was her hatchling, her bloodthirsty little sun, covered in translucent scales.”"

"(Part 1, Chapter 4, Page 45)"

"(Chapter 1, Page 9)"

"The main problem was that we were a distinct we instead of being fully and just her.”"

"There was nothing boiling in him, just a loud and clear exhale, a weight of peace wrapping around his heart.”"

"Osita wished, much later, that he’d told Vivek the truth then, that he was so beautiful he made the air around him dull, made Osita hard with desire. ‘Take it off,’ he snapped instead, his throat rough. ‘Put it back before they catch us.’”"

"This was before Vivek, before the fire, before Chika would discover exactly how difficult it was to dig his own grave with the bones of his son.”"

"That morning, she was wearing an orange cotton dress; she looked like a burning sunset, and Chika knew immediately that his story would end with her, that he would drown in her large liquid eyes and it would be the perfect way to go."

"…Whenever you write something biographical, everyone in your family doesn’t share the same memory. So your version of the story is not necessarily their version of the story, and part of the flexibility in having it fictionalized is that there’s not really a need to adhere to the strict facts. Because everything is colored by memory, especially when you’re pulling from childhood memories. There’s a little bit of wiggle room. This is my story of these events, as I remember it, as I experienced it…"

"(chapter 2)"

"Bitter knew her name was heavy, but she hadn’t minded, because it was honest. That was something she’d taught Jam—that a lot of things were manageable as long as they were honest […] But Jam trusted her mother for those brutal truths, and that’s why home was the ﬁrst place she brought the books with the angels in them.”"

"…When I ask myself what beauty is in my eyes, the answer is that I would prefer not to have eyes. I would prefer not to have flesh, I would prefer to be dust, free of the whole thing altogether…"

"I think multiple realities exist. Most colonised countries had their cosmology, their ontology, their metaphysics colonised too. They’ve been told that what was there before wasn’t real. My dad’s a pretty conservative Christian, but he’ll still get a pastor to come to the hospital [where he works as a doctor] because someone’s been working black magic. I say to him: “If you don’t believe in it, why is the pastor there?” He says: “You don’t need to believe in something for it to be real.”"

"…I read literally everything I could get my hands on – the shampoo bottle, the cereal box. My mom didn’t let us have books at the table or we’d all have read. We didn’t always have electricity, so I read by candlelight. I read really fast too. My parents realised I’d run out of things to read and were like: “We need to buy you way more books.”"