“At home in Nigeria, all a mother had to do for a baby was wash and feed him and, if he was fidgety, strap him onto her back and carry on with her work while that baby slept. But in England she had to wash piles and piles of nappies, wheel the child round for sunshine during the day, attend to his feeds as regularly as if one were serving a master, talk to the child, even if he was only a day old! Oh, yes, in England, looking after babies was in itself a full-time job.”
― Buchi Emecheta, quote from Second Class Citizen
“The leaves were still on the trees, but were becoming dry, perched like birds ready to fly off.”
― Buchi Emecheta, quote from Second Class Citizen
“One thing she did know was the greatest book on human psychology is the Bible. If you were lazy and did not wish to work, or if you had failed to make your way in society, you could always say, 'My kingdom is not of this world.' If you were a jet-set woman who believed in sleeping around, VD or no VD, you could always say Mary Magdalene had no husband, but didn't she wash the feet of Our Lord? Wasn't she the first person to see our risen saviour? If, in the other hand, you believed in the inferiority of the blacks, you could always say, 'Slaves, obey your masters.' It is a mysterious book, one of the greatest of all books, if not the greatest. Hasn't it got all the answers?”
― Buchi Emecheta, quote from Second Class Citizen
“She did not delude herself into expecting Francis to love her. He had never been taught how to love, but had an arresting way of looking pleased at Adah's achievements.”
― Buchi Emecheta, quote from Second Class Citizen
“Adah could not stop thinking about her discovery that the whites were just as fallible as everyone else. There were bad whites and good whites, just as there were bad blacks and good blacks! Why then did they claim to be superior?”
― Buchi Emecheta, quote from Second Class Citizen
“She, who only a few months previously would have accepted nothing but the best, had by now been conditioned to expect inferior things. She was now learning to suspect anything beautiful and pure. Those things were for the whites, not the blacks.”
― Buchi Emecheta, quote from Second Class Citizen
“She had gambled with marriage, just like most people, but she had gambled unluckily and had lost.”
― Buchi Emecheta, quote from Second Class Citizen
Buchi Emecheta
Born place: in Lagos, Nigeria
Born date July 21, 1944
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“The driving force of any ideology stands revealed: it can’t be coherent without being intolerant.”
― Clive James, quote from Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts
“I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”’ “I”
― Tim LaHaye, quote from Apollyon
“There is not a man born among us who dreams—at first—of service, although in the end, many are bent that way.”
― Michelle Sagara, quote from Cast in Silence
“Everything went black in the shocking folds of his embrace. She was very startled and near to sobbing.
'Caw, caw,' echoed his raincoat.
'Don't be frightened,' he said. 'It is only poor Finn, who will do you no harm.'
She recovered herself a little, though she was still trembling. She could see her own face reflected in little in the black pupils of his subaqueous eyes. She still looked the same. She saluted herself. He was only a little taller than she and their eyes were almost level. Remotely, she wished him three inches taller. Or four. She felt the warm breath from his wild beast's mouth softly, against her cheek. She did not move. Stiff, wooden, and unresponsive, she stood in his arms and watched herself in his eyes. It was a comfort to see herself as she thought she looked.
'Oh, get it over with, get it over with,' she urged furiously under her breath.
He was grinning like Pan in a wood. He kissed her, closing his eyes so that she could not see herself any more. His lips were wet and rough, cracked. It might have been anybody, kissing her, and besides, she did not know him well, if at all. She wondered why he was doing this, putting his mouth on her own undesiring one, softly moving his body against her. What was the need? She felt a long way away from him, and superior, also.”
― Angela Carter, quote from The Magic Toyshop
“If God is compassionate, then certainly those who love God should be compassionate as well.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, quote from The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
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