Because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye β¦ I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
Creative writing programmes are not very necessary. They just exist so that people like us can make a living.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creative writing programs may not be essential, but they provide an income for those involved in them.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's quote suggests that while creative writing programs might not be crucial for developing writing skills, they serve a purpose in the literary world by offering livelihood opportunities to writers and instructors. This highlights the commercial aspect of creative arts education and raises questions about the necessity and value of formal training in creativity.
Themes
Creative WritingEducationWriting ProgramsLivelihoodLiterary
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a panel discussion on the value of creative writing education.
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If I had not grown up in Nigeria- and if all I knew of Africa were of popular images- I too would think that africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals and incomprehensible people fighting sensless wars, dying of poverty and aids- unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind white foreigner.
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Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
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You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.
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Non-fiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience, is often as much about character and story and emotion as fiction is.
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