Half of a Yellow Sun

by 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.

This was love: a string of coincidences that gathered significance and became miracles.

“You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Do you hear me?” Aunty Ifeka said. “Your life belongs to you and you alone, soso gi.

Unbroken happiness is a bore; it should have ups and downs.