So it’s not motivation to continue, but reward for work already completed. That’s the most important thing to keep in mind, that the work comes first. - Lesley Nneka Arimah

A reader comes to the page and essentially learns the rules of this world, not because the rules are being told to them but because the rules are being broken. Via the consequences of the rules being broken, the reader comes to understand what the rules are.

When I think of what literature can do, and I think of the ways that literature has changed minds and opened imaginations, I want to say that we African writers must centre the African gaze.

There is nothing inherently wrong with not knowing as much as people think you should or not knowing everything. There is no need to feel any sort of shame.