6 Quotes & Sayings By Taiye Selasi

Taiye Selasi is an acclaimed author of contemporary fiction. Originally from Ghana, Selasi has lived in the UK since her early twenties. Her debut novel, "Astrild," was published in 2010 and won her the "Young Adult Library Services Association" citation for best new writer. Her second novel, "The Book of Memory," was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize Read more

Selasi's third novel, "The Toy Thief," won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa region), the Caine Prize for African Writing, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She is currently working on her fourth novel.

They were doers and thinkers and lovers and seekers and...
1
They were doers and thinkers and lovers and seekers and givers, but dreamers, most dangerously of all. Taiye Selasi
2
He feels a second pang now for the existence of perfection, the stubborn existence of perfection in the most vulnerable of things and in the face of his refusal-logical-admirable refusal-to engage with this existence in his heart, in his mind. For the comfortless logic, the curse of clear sight, no matter which string he pulls on the same wretched knot: (a) the futility of seeing given the fatality in a place such as this where a mother still bloody must bury her newborn, hose off, and go home to pound yam into paste; (b) the persistence of beauty, in fragility of all places! , in a dewdrop at daybreak, a thing that will end, and in moments, and in a garden, and in Ghana, lush Ghana, soft Ghana, verdant Ghana, where fragile things die. Taiye Selasi
3
She sleeps like a cocoyam. A thing without senses. She sleeps like his mother, unplugged from the world. Taiye Selasi
4
Every Christmas, all around Ghana, there are tons of these parties and they are full of everything that exists in human life in Ghana and worldwide. Taiye Selasi
5
As a young woman, I had been seeking experience, knowledge, truth, the stuff writers need in their work, but when the artist actually kicked in, I came to understand that in this romantic relationship I was not free to be myself, or to find myself, in order to begin the true work I needed to do. Taiye Selasi