Sefi Atta Quotes

#1. I can't say L'Etranger influenced me to write, but for the first time I considered the possibility of telling a story that resembled my own experiences in my own voice.

Sefi Atta

#2. The truth is that civilization does not protect us from wild animals. It attempts, however imperfectly, to protect us from ourselves.

Michael Crichton

#3. I have so many friends and obligations, and I want to go out and support people. But we eat at home.

Waris Ahluwalia

#4. At some point, practicality requires that you reach out to people in the business. You have to take care of business if you value your work.

Sefi Atta

#5. How strange to think that great pain may be impermanent. Something in us all seems to want to carve it in granite, as if only this would do full honor to its terrible significance. But even pain is blessed with impermanence ...
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Rachel Naomi Remen

#6. I'm addicted to writing.

Sefi Atta

#7. I don't have a schedule, but I can write for hours non-stop. If I'm drafting a book, I try and do a chapter a day. I dislike first drafts. Revision is a lot more fun, but it takes years.

Sefi Atta

#8. My accountancy experience could come in handy if ever I find myself in the right position. For now, I'm very happy to write.

Sefi Atta

#9. I heard someone say that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven. I decided to sculpt camels in a needle.

Willard Wigan

#10. I'm disciplined about writing. I get up every day knowing I have to produce work. I'm less concerned about other aspects of the job, such as the prizes and promotions. Promoting my work can be awkward, unless I feel sociable enough. Prizes encourage me to work harder on my next project.

Sefi Atta

#11. I get stage fright with short stories. For me it feels like standup comedy: kill or die. I'm more confident when I begin a novel because I know I have space to fail.

Sefi Atta

#12. If you are stimulated by what you do, you never get tired

Nelson Mandela

#13. I have to say that writing about my writing process is more daunting than writing non-fiction.

Sefi Atta

#14. For all forms, writing dialogue is almost like writing music. I pay close attention to rhythms and tones.

Sefi Atta

#15. You don't need attention to write. All you need is passion for your work and an overwhelming desire to tell a story you genuinely care about. Readers can sense your sincerity and it separates you from pretenders.

Sefi Atta

#16. I never wanted to be a writer; I just had stories I needed to tell.

Sefi Atta

#17. I'm always working on something new and while I'm working, I'm absorbed with my characters, their conflicts,my language and settings. I'm in another place and it is a shock to come out and consider my previous works.

Sefi Atta

#18. When you're small, you either are funny, or you get beat up a lot.

Tim Conway

#19. I was my class playwright and I wrote plays set in villages with kings and chiefs.My plays were about treason and betrayals. If they were influenced by Macbeth, they were also influenced by Nigerian plays I had seen and Village Headmaster, a television drama series I had watched as a child.

Sefi Atta

#20. People don't fear the wind until it fells a tree. Then, they say it's too much.

Sefi Atta

#21. Ineffective leaders often act on the advice and counsel of the last person they talked to.

Warren G. Bennis

#22. What patient can trust the knowledge of a physician without reputation or furniture, in a period when publicity is all-powerful and when the government gilds the lamp posts on the Place de la Concorde in order to dazzle the poor?

Honore De Balzac

#23. I don't have much of an imagination, but I have a mind bank of details, which I play with. It's how I daydream, so writing like that is natural for me.

Sefi Atta

#24. I always begin [a novel] with outlines, but they change and so do my endings and beginnings.

Sefi Atta

#25. My priorities are always going to be my husband and my family now. That's a huge, huge thing.

Gwen Stefani

#26. She says the lesson to learn is that the world is round, which means that if I run too fast I might end up chasing the very homeland I am running from.

Sefi Atta

#27. Our ability to surrender in life is directly related to the amount of peace and fulfillment we experience.

Mike Robbins

#28. I don't remember being a keen reader, but apparently I was. My aunt told me that whenever I was teased for reading, I would say, "To each his own."

Sefi Atta

#29. What works for me is that I read widely and stay focused on my writing. I'm no longer concerned about what happens in the literary marketplace. It is distracting and can lead to discontent.

Sefi Atta

#30. I couldn't decide on a title for my first novel and my editor came up with Everything Good Will Come. After that, I thought I should name my own books.A Bit of Difference seems just right.

Sefi Atta

#31. I enjoy writing plays most. I haven't written a radio play in a while and I don't write short stories anymore because the process of submitting them depressed me. I really enjoy revising novels, but drafting them can be a pain.

Sefi Atta

#32. 've had notebooks, but they are nondescript. All I care about is that they fit in my hand. I scribble down ideas. The problem is my best ideas come while I'm driving or showering.

Sefi Atta

#33. I read Macbeth as a secondary student in Nigeria and it was like an African play to me. It had all the right elements - witches, kings and assassinations.

Sefi Atta

#34. I don't write non-fiction because I get bored. Some of my writing is autobiographical, but not the way readers imagine. I use my memory of settings, events and people. I weave history into my stories, but my narratives are made up.

Sefi Atta

#35. Together linkt with adamantine chains.

Edmund Spenser

#36. It's quite hard not to cringe at your own music; you're always a bit annoyed at some parts of it.

Michael Kiwanuka

#37. I had stopped writing plays set in villages because they were not relevant to my experiences and I knew my English classmates wouldn't appreciate them.

Sefi Atta

#38. As a student in England, I studied French and English literature. I read L'Etranger and the rhythm of the novel felt familiar to me - very African.

Sefi Atta

#39. If I were to make a list, I would include the interceptions, the sacks, the really painful losses. Those times when I've been down, when I've been kicked around, I hold on to those. In a way those are the best times I've ever had, because that's when I've found out who I am. And what I want to be.

Brett Favre

#40. Two days in a row with morning appointments! What kind of evil cloud was he under here, all of a sudden?

Donald E. Westlake

#41. How hard something is often depends on your vantage point.

Lysa TerKeurst