# Quote — Teju Cole, Open City

> They gave no reason. They just said I would have to submit another one in twelve months. I was crushed. I left school. Plagiarism? The only possibilities are either that they refused to believe my command of English and theory or, I think this is even more likely, that they were punishing me for world events in which I had played no role. My thesis committee had me on September 20, 2001..That was the year I lost my illusions about Europe.

- Author: [Teju Cole](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole.md)
- Book: [Open City](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city.md)
- Page: 129
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Teju_Cole#Open_City_(2011)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city/they-gave-no-reason

## More from this book

> Action led to action, free of any moorings, and the way to be someone, the way to catch the attention of the young and recruit them to one's cause, was to be enraged. It seemed as if the only way this lure of violence could be avoided was by having no causes, by being magnificently isolated from all loyalties. But was that not an ethical lapse graver than rage itself?

p. 107 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city/action-led-to-action.md)

> Blacks, ‘we blacks’ had known rougher ports of entry [...] This was the acknowledgement he wanted, in his brusque fashion, from every ‘brother’ he met.

p. 55 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city/blacks-we-blacks.md)

> There’s strong leftist support for Palestinian causes in the United States. Many of my friends in New York, for example, think that Israel is doing terrible things in the Occupied Territories.

p. 118 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city/theres-strong-leftist.md)