Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor Quotes

It may not seem that way, but I am an absolute optimist, an unrepentant optimist.

I can edit into infinity. It’s such a joy. I’d probably edit until the last word. Until there’s only one word left.

For Kenya: we have a chance to start again each time we meet one another. The ghosts do not need to define the future.

I get turned on by the idea of an essence – finding the essence of the thing.

Even if we want to eradicate our ghosts, our dead, our murdered, even if you erase a name and the record of the existence of a person, somebody remembers.

I think every morning we wake up offers a new beginning, a new way of stepping into the day. I think every conversation could be a new chance.

Novel-writing is a settling, lovely space. I call it self-indulgent – I feel mildly guilty about it.

Kenya is a mercurial character. I feel the country has a presence that can turn on its people in a very violent way.

Every Kenyan writer has offered me something to hold onto, something to believe in.

Recording stories is a way of honoring the faculty of memory, even if it’s recorded, outsourcing memory to technology.

I like talking to myself and making patterns out of the letters of the alphabet on blank surfaces.

The truth, and nothing but the truth, is that dawn begins with a wrestling match with my soul and a systematic rejection of all the other useful possibilities a day offers. I make obeisance to the story, its characters, and the muse with burnt offerings.