Before You Speak, My Friend,

All Power Within The Microcosm Of My World Was Held And Wielded By People Who Look Like Me. Plus, I Think Nigerians All Have This Sense That They Are Better Than Everyone, Including White People. So I Have The Privilege Of A Certain Distance. It May Just Be That. So In A Sense, I Can't Claim That As Any Ability That I Have, Simply A Matter Of Circumstance.

Anything A Man Can Do, I Can Fix.

Fiction Is Risky For Writers Also In That The Process Of Making Certain Books, Of Shaping Certain Narratives, Leaves Scars And Marks On Your Inner Life.

The Truth Is, Everything We Know About America, Everything Americans Come To Know About Being American, Isn't From The News. I Live There. We Don't Go Home At The End Of The Day And Think, "well, I Really Know Who I Am Now Because The Wall Street Journal Says That The Stock Exchange Closed At This Many Points." What We Know About How To Be Who We Are Comes From Stories. It Comes From The Novels, The Movies, The Fashion Magazines. It Comes From Popular Culture.

The Internet Is Really Our Meeting Place. We Have This Amazing Listserv. Every Time I Log Onto It I Feel A Sense Of Pride, Because If You Log On And Say, "oh I Was Just In San Diego And I Was In A Park And I Saw A Lion," The Flurry Of Replies On Average Is Just Like--wow! All These Existential Questions About What It Means To Be An African, And Never Having Seen A Lion At Home, But Having Seen A Lion Here. Everything You Say Turns Into This Real Philosophical Debate--it's Incredible In So Many Ways. And It's An Invigorating Place To Be.