“I, like all artists in Western cultures, am a shaman…come in the guise of a comic…to heal perception by using…’jokes’.”

I love playing with words and texture.

I’m extremely optimistic about rapid transformation and change of things in Africa in general.

I, Binyavanga Wainaina, quite honestly swear I have known I am a homosexual since I was five.

Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated

I believe in, and will to the best of my ability fight for, equal rights and freedom of opinion for everyone, regardless of colour, religion, nationality, orientation – you know the rest.

A stretch of my body would surely stretch as far as the sky. The whole universe poised, and I am the agent of any movement.

All people have dignity. Theres nobody who was born without a soul and a spirit.

I like the idea of readers feeling a familiarity, whether its with Africa or childhood.

People reach an age… where somebody elses platform is no longer yours.

Everywhere I go, I see young people: Confident, forward looking. I have seen them in Lagos, in Rwanda, in the suburbs of London.

People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians.

Our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand or empowering passionate employees and customers, will happen on its own.

When we began Starbucks, what I wanted to try to do was to create a set of values, guiding principles, and culture.

The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and at the foundation, the pre-eminence of family.

In England you’re skewered on the altar of pop culture if you become pretentious.

If you decide to move to another country and to live within its laws you don’t express your disregard for the essence of the culture. It’s a form of aggression.

Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees.

For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny.