Nuruddin Farah quotes:

To the Somali, the Amerikaan is weird, to the American GI, the Somali is an ingrate and a skinny.

Death in Somalia seldom bothers to announce its arrival. In fact, death calls with the arrogance of a guest confident on receiving a warm welcome at any time, no question asked.

That in a civil war there is continuous fighting, based on grievences that are forever changing.

It's always fallen to women to forge the peace between all these hot-blooded men, always ready to go to war at the slightest provocation.Why do men behave the way they do, warring?What do you think? he asked.Maybe because they've got no sense of grief?

And when there is the possibility of peace, a new fight erupts, based on an old complaint, and which some people call justice adn others madness.

Good writing is like a bomb: it explodes in the face of the reader.

She wondered then if she had ever been on the right track. She had been reticent all her life, because it turned out that her opinions were different from what others expected. 'That proves either that I am an exceptional idiot, or the reverse.

I have tried my best to keep my country alive by writing about it.