So often, literature about African people is conflated with literature about African politics, as if the state were somehow of greater import or interest than the individual.

I read recently that the problem with stereotypes isn't that they are inaccurate, but that they're incomplete. And this captures perfectly what I think about contemporary African literature. The problem isn't that it's inaccurate, it's that it's incomplete.

I consider myself West African, among other cultural identities, and a writer, among other creative ones.

The big ideas always come in flashes. I don't really craft stories that much. I genuinely don't know where these people come from, and I've often wondered if writing is just a socially acceptable form of madness.

Being a twin, and being my sister's twin, is such a defining part of my life that I wouldn't know how to be who I am, including a writer, without that being somehow at the centre.

As a writer, one is obliged to release her words, to let them live in the world on their own.