Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

"Then she wished, more rationally, that she could love him without needing him. Need gave him power without his trying; need was the choicelessness she often felt around him."

Why did people ask "What is it about?" as if a novel had to be about only one thing.

The trick was to understand America, to know that America was give-and-take. You gave up a lot but you gained a lot, too.