Quotes from Bernardine Evaristo

t]here's no need to be breaking balls here ..., becauses there are no men here, which is why we come across as serene to you, we can just be ourselves, reclaiming the Feminine Divine, connecting to and protecting Mother Earth, sharing our resources, making decisions communally but maintaining our privacy and autonomy, self-healing the female body and psyche with yoga, martial arts, walking, running, meditation, spiritual practice ... whatever works for each one of us ...

I could see how the Ambossans had hardened their hearts to our humanity. They convinced themselves that we do not feel as they do, so that they do not have to feel anything for us. It's very convenient and lucrative for them.

Such was the demand for sugar, the price of a sweet tooth was a toothless smile. Such was the demand for coffee, the price of caffeine was addiction, heart palpitations, osteoporosis and general irritability. The price of rum was chronic liver disease, alcoholism and permanent memory loss. The cost of tobacco was cancer, stained teeth and emphysema.

I could sense the surge of all those Ambossans who for years had filled those brightly lit tunnels during what they called the Rushing Hour. All those scurrying feet and harried minds. All those sugar-loving, coffee-drinking, baccy-smoking, rum-sipping commuters, most of whom hadn't a thought about who provided their little pleasures, their little dependencies.

To be honest, it felt so distant from us, we din't give it much thought. Our world was made up of our immediate neighbours and foreign meant the people of the midlands or fenlands.

My own kind? If I had to pinpoint a moment when the human race divided into the severe distinctions of blak and whyte, that was it: people belonged to one of two colours and in the society I was about to join my colour, not my personality or ability, would determine my fate.

If someone asks for their freedom, you got to give it to them; otherwise you become their jailer.

Lord, how come she asking me this now? A colony of ants starts crawling all over my scalp, but I'm too afraid to attack them in case she interprets my discomfort. This is too much. Anything is a big word that can accommodate all things, and every thing, and some thing that, yes, she needs to know eventually, but it ain't easy giving voice to the love that brings shame .

The Hope & Glory would carry forty cases of muskets, 32,000 gunflints, coral necklaces, Aphrikan prints, bead jewellery, quills, papyrus, household objects such as kettles and musical instruments such as the talking drum, with which to barter for livestock. My host joked that the guns would encourage the Europanes to start more wars which would result in more prisoners offered up as slaves.

be a person with knowledge not just opinions

gender is one of the biggest lies of our civilization

ageing is nothing to be ashamed of especially when the entire human race is in it together

privilege is about context and circumstance

Ageing is nothing to be ashamed of Especially when the entire race is in it together Although sometimes it seems that she alone among her friends wants to celebrate getting older Because it's such a privilege to not die prematurely

life is an adventure to be embraced with an open mind and loving heart

it's important to counterbalance the state of being cerebral with the state of being corporeal

she didn't tell them she'd taken her father for granted and carried her blinkered, self-righteous perspective of him from childhood through to his death, when in fact he'd done nothing wrong except fail to live up to her feminist expectations of him

Let us wonder at how X was just a rare letter until algebra came along and made it something special that can be unravelled to reveal inner value.

women who miraculously spend their working day wearing bondage-tight skirts and vertiginous, destabilizing heels which make their feet look bound the erogenous zones of crushed muscles and cramped bones, encased in upmarket strippers' heels and if she has to cripple herself to signal her education, talent, intellect, skills and leadership potential then so be it

his bredren and sistren could damned well speak up for themselves why should he carry the burden of representation when it will only hold him back? white people are only required to represent themselves, not an entire race

her morning mantra in the bathroom mirror I am highly presentable, likeable, clubbable, relatable, promotable and successful

People have to share everything they do these days, from meals, to nights out, to selfies of themselves half naked in a mirror The borders between public and private are dissolving

What matters most to me, is that I know how I feel, and the rest of the world might catch up one day, even if it'll be a quiet revolution over longer than my lifetime, if it happens at all

To leave a whisper of myself in the world, my ghost, a magna opera of words.