There are those who wake up each morning to conquer the day, and then there are those of us who wake up only because we have to. We live in the shado…

- Dinaw Mengestu

At night my father often heard sporadic gunfire mixed in with the sound of dogs howling. If the war came closer, soon there would be only minor diffe…

- Dinaw Mengestu

It's hard sometimes to remember why we do anything in the first place. It's nice to think there's a purpose, or even a real decision that turns every…

- Dinaw Mengestu

The imagined memories had to have as much weight as the real, or we had to at least pretend they did to such a degree that they just very well might …

- Dinaw Mengestu

When I was growing up, Forest Park was full of integrated families. It was amazing. One my best friends was Vietnamese. Another one was half-Mexican,…

- Dinaw Mengestu

I was always curious about the anxiety a person would feel when you open your mouth and you have an accent. You could have a Ph.D. or be a lawyer, bu…

- Dinaw Mengestu

Don't think about how your characters sound, but how they see. Watch the world through their eyes - study the extraordinary and the mundane through t…

- Dinaw Mengestu

My mother could never have said she loved fall, but as she walked down the steps with her suitcase in hand toward the red Monte Carlo her husband had…

- Dinaw Mengestu

We persist and linger longer than we think, leaving traces of ourselves wherever we go. If you take that away, then we all simply vanish.

- Dinaw Mengestu