Granta’s Deputy Editor Ellah Allfrey interviewed author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o at New Beacon Books about his childhood in rural Kenya and his piece in the new Granta - an extract of upcoming memoir Dreams in a Time of War.

Héctor Abad

‘Ever since this happened to me, I haven’t really believed in free will.’

Issue 124

Héctor Abad

‘A pale-faced, near-sighted urbanite like me is nothing less than handicapped in the heart of the jungle.’

Kazushige Abe

‘The crucial thing was to cool the baby off, bring the fever down.’

Azhar Abidi

‘I wonder sometimes when this cycle of violence began. When was year zero?’

Issue 28

Walter Abish

‘It took him only a moment to eliminate all doubt. The opportunity was ripe.’

Issue 4

Walter Abish

‘How to explain this resolve to write, this firm unwavering intent to become a writer on the part of someone who may not even really care for books?’

Issue 2

Walter Abish

‘I believe in the harmony of my friendship to Gisela rather than in the binding force that the institution of marriage is said to represent.’

Mona Abouissa

Mona Abouissa on her experiences with Egyptian communists, and the role they played in Egypt before 1952, when they were excised from official history.

Leila Aboulela

‘I left Sudan in 1987 – I was 23 years old and the idea of writing was the furthest thing from my mind.’

Leila Aboulela

‘She had held the day up with pegs; not only her day but his too.’

André Aciman

‘We all have ways of placing markers on our lives.’

Issue 122

André Aciman

‘Your problem is not that you misread signs; it’s that you see them everywhere.’

Issue 90

Tim Adams

‘He told the police officer that he was a vegan and the next morning a little slit in the prison door opened, with his breakfast: a metal tray on which there were three frozen potatoes.’ Tim Adams on the fox hunting ban in Granta 90: Country Life.