Quotes from Buchi Emecheta

As soon as I finish a book, I sell the paperback rights to different publishers and that's where I recoup my money.

In all my novels, I deal with the many problems and prejudices which exist for Black people in Britain today.

Being a woman writer, I would be deceiving myself if I said I write completely through the eye of a man. There's nothing bad in it, but that does not make me a feminist writer. I hate that name. The tag is from the Western world - like we are called the Third World.

I came to England in 1962 as a very young bride, in my teens, hoping just to stay two years and go back.

I usually make sure that my stories are from Africa or my own background so as to highlight the cultural background at the same time as telling the story.

I like to be called a Nigerian rather than somebody from the Third World or the developing or whatever.

I believe it is important to speak to your readers in person... to enable people to have a whole picture of me; I have to both write and speak. I view my role as writer and also as oral communicator.

A hungry man is an angry one.

The first book I wrote was The Bride Price which was a romantic book, but my husband burnt the book when he saw it. I was the typical African woman, I'd done this privately, I wanted him to look at it, approve it and he said he wouldn't read it.

God, when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody's appendage? she prayed desperately.

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.

The leaves were still on the trees, but were becoming dry, perched like birds ready to fly off.

Enquanto voltava para o quarto, ocorreu a Nnu Ego que ela uma prisioneira: aprisionada pelo amor por seus filhos, aprisionada pelo papel de esposa mais velha. Dela, não se esperava nem que pedisse mais dinheiro para a família, essa atitude seria considerada inferior ao padrão esperado de uma mulher em sua posição. Não era justa, ela achava, o modo como os espertos dos homens usavam o sentido de responsabilidade de uma mulher para escravisá-la na prática.

In Ibuza sons help their father more than they help their mother. A mother's joy is only in the name. She worries over them,looks after them when they are small;but in the actual help on the farm ,the upholding of the family name,all belong to the father.

A man is never ugly.

Nnaife did not realise that Dr Meers's laughter was inspired by that type of wickedness that reduces any man, white or black, intelligent or not, to a new low; lower than the basest of animals, for animals at least respected each other's feelings, each other's dignity.

Quanto mais eu penso no assunto, mais me dou conta de que nós, mulheres, fixamos modelos impossíveis para nós mesmas. Que tornamos a vida intolerável umas para as outras. Não consigo corresponder a nossos modelos, esposa mais velha. Por isso preciso criar meus próprios.

Deus, quando você irá criar uma mulher que se sinta satisfeita com sua própria pessoa, um ser humano pleno, não o apêndice de alguém?

Alguns pais, especialmente os que têm muitos filhos de diferentes esposas podem rejeitar um mau filho, um amo pode rejeitar um criado perverso, uma esposa pode chegar ao ponto de abandonar um mau marido, mas uma mãe nunca, nunca pode rejeitar seu filho. Se ele for condenado, ela será condenada ao lado dele.

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.

Don't blame anyone for what has happened to your father. Things have changed drastically since the days of his own youth,but he has refused to see the changes...The fact is that parents get only reflected glory from their children nowadays,whereas your father has invested in all of you, just as his father invested in him so that he could help on the farm. Your father forgot that he himself left the family farm to come to this place.

Marriage is lovely when it works, but if it does not, should one condemn oneself ? I stopped feeling guilty for being me.

Living entirely off writing is a precarious existence and money is always short, bit with careful management and planning I found I could keep my head and those of my family, through God's grace, above water.

She had gambled with marriage, just like most people, but she had gambled unluckily and had lost.