6 Quotes & Sayings By Chris Abani

Chris Abani is the author of two novels, The Sound of Things Falling, which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and A Way of Life, which won the Granta Best of Young British Novelists. The Sound of Things Falling was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, long listed for the Man Booker Prize, long listed for the Orange Prize, and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize. It was also named one of Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2011. Chris Abani lives in London.

1
What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion, everyday acts of compassion. In South Africa they have a phrase called ubuntu. Ubuntu comes out of a philosophy that says, the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me. Chris Abani
2
But the thing is that, in the end, we each must decide how comfortable we are with how much we hurt other people Chris Abani
3
I watch what happens below and Iam grateful that I can smell my smell, smell my smell and live while below me it happens, it happens that night bright as day, but I cannot name it, those things that happened while I watched, and I cannot speak something that was never in words, speak of things I cannot imagine, could never have seen even as I saw it, and I hide and am grateful for my smell crouched like an animal in that dark hot space . Chris Abani
4
If I don't get at least one e-mail every ten minutes, I feel unloved. Even junk mail makes me feel seen. Sad, I know. Sigh. Chris Abani
5
Sometimes I feel very alone. I am a bit of a nomad. Many people in sort of emerging countries, emerging economies, find themselves displaced. So there is that sense, and so I'm part of a whole, I think, group of displaced people. Chris Abani