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" When I went to live in South Africa, I immediately began to understand what went wrong. Because here was a place supposed to be under apartheid - I arrived there in 1991 - but here a black person had more say and had more influence over his white government than an average Kenyan had over the Moi government. "

Binyavanga Wainaina

Black

Live

Influence

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" Every one, we, we homosexuals, are people, and we need our oxygen to breathe. "

" We are a mixed up people. We have mixed up ways of naming, too... When my father's brothers and sisters first went to colonial schools, they had to produce a surname. They also had to show they were good Christians by adopting a western name. They adopted my grandfather's name as surname. Wainaina. "

" I am quite excited that Moi is leaving. Kenyans have changed. We have a free press, and it is no longer a situation of 'follow in my footsteps.' "

Binyavanga Wainaina

Free

I Am

" I knew I didn't want to come out in the 'New Yorker'; it just felt wrong. It needed an African conversation. "

" There's no point for me in being a writer and having all these blocked places where I feel I can't think freely and imagine freely. There just really is no point. "

Binyavanga Wainaina

Feel

Think

" Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel prize. "

" Living in South Africa and periodically coming back to Kenya, my relationship with officialdom in Kenya was just insane. "

" I believe in, and will to the best of my ability fight for, equal rights and freedom of opinion for everyone, regardless of colour, religion, nationality, orientation - you know the rest. "

" It's like I was always not quite sure even how to move in space somehow; I would watch people and then copy them. I found it really hard to walk straight. My brother was always on at me for walking off the pavement. I guess I always expected people to bring me back into line. "

" Every human being has a bit of gangster in him. "

" I'm extremely optimistic about rapid transformation and change of things in Africa in general. "

" I love playing with words and texture. "

" I like the idea of readers feeling a familiarity, whether it's with Africa or childhood. "

Binyavanga Wainaina

Feeling

Idea

" I'm not even sure I want to use the term 'coming out.' "

" There is no country in the world with the diversity, confidence and talent and black pride like Nigeria. "

" People reach an age... where somebody else's platform is no longer yours. "

" In kindergarten, we had this Irish Catholic headmistress called Sister Leonie, and I remember she would tell us, say, to put the crayons in the box. I remember thinking, 'Why is everyone finding this so easy? Why should the crayons be in the box?' "

" All people have dignity. There's nobody who was born without a soul and a spirit. "

" I, Binyavanga Wainaina, quite honestly swear I have known I am a homosexual since I was five. "

Binyavanga Wainaina

Homosexual

Five