I, Binyavanga Wainaina, quite honestly swear I have known I am a homosexual since I was five.

There is no country in the world with the diversity, confidence and talent and black pride like Nigeria.

Every human being has a bit of gangster in him.

All people have dignity. Theres nobody who was born without a soul and a spirit.

Everywhere I go, I see young people: Confident, forward looking. I have seen them in Lagos, in Rwanda, in the suburbs of London.

I’m extremely optimistic about rapid transformation and change of things in Africa in general.

I believe in, and will to the best of my ability fight for, equal rights and freedom of opinion for everyone, regardless of colour, religion, nationality, orientation - you know the rest.

I like the idea of readers feeling a familiarity, whether its with Africa or childhood.

Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated

People reach an age... where somebody elses platform is no longer yours.

I love playing with words and texture.

...success is not a comparison of what we have done with what others have done.

Diversity, rather than cohesiveness, is the new passion, and it pits us against each other for “rights.

The monster London laugh at me.

My dad didn't graduate from high school, ended up being a printing salesman, probably never made more than $8,000 a year. My mom sold real estate and did it part time.

The New Orleans bands, you see, didn't play with a flat sound. They'd shade the music. After the band had played with the two or three horns blowing, they'd let the rhythm have it.

We manipulate nature as if we were stuffing an Alsatian goose. We create new forms of energy; we make new elements; we kill crops; we wash brains. I can hear them in the dark sharpening their lasers.

Ultimately, if circumstances line-up in a way that makes it possible for Fugazi to play and the desire was there, we would do that.

The Light of one human being who discovers the Truth has been lighting human existence for thousands of years. Such is the power of a human being who realizes the Truth of who they are.

In LA, you think you're making something up, but it's making you up.

Focus should be on the art of film, not on the business of film.