I wanted to write about extended family systems. You have people you can fall back on, and it's good. But what if you don't fit into what is expected of you?

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• Ayobami Adebayo:

  I wanted to explore expectations we have of people - what a woman should be, what a man should be.

• Ayobami Adebayo:

  My mother has a lot of sisters. They had very, very interesting conversations. Because I was a quie

• Ayobami Adebayo:

  Wole Soyinka's 'Death and the King's Horseman' is a play I go back to and I read often.

• Ayobami Adebayo:

  I have always been very interested in the idea of loneliness and the presumption that romantic rela

• Ayobami Adebayo:

  I think a large part of being human centers on the state of being alone, and we try to mitigate tha

• Ayobami Adebayo:

  I think, for women in particular, it's kind of like you're expected to get married, have a child, a

• Ayobami Adebayo:

  When I was in my late teens, a couple of friends passed away suddenly. This was quite distressing,

• Ayobami Adebayo:

  There's a Yoruba proverb which roughly translates into, 'What turns its face to one person has turn

• Ayobami Adebayo:

  'Stay with Me' started out being very political, largely because I'm a little obsessed with politic

• Ayobami Adebayo:

  I come from a part of Nigeria where a lot of value is placed on implicit communication. The 'well b