I read 'The Conspiracy Against the Human Race' and found it incredibly powerful writing. For me as a reader, it was less impactful as philosophy than as one writer's ultimate confessional: an absolute horror story, where the self is the monster.

We're all born storytellers. It's part of the species. But, more specifically, I suppose a particular combination of sensitivity and trauma made me a writer: an essential disquiet with reality, which required exploration through portrayal.

It's your job to come up with compelling characters who speak to an individual authenticity. If I'm not interested in the characters, I can't go on. I have to be fascinated by them.

The Atlantic' really gave me my writing career - even just the conviction to be a writer.

I've had a lot of cognitive behavioural therapy, and am having a family now.

My family is from Nigeria, and my full name is Uzoamaka, which means 'The road is good.'

This change for creating a better world will not come from the government or an outside agency; it will have to be internal. We blame the politicians for everything, but if I give equal respect and rights to the women of my family, I have taken the first step forward.

If we value children and family, there's a great need for change, and we should try immigration reform - create a path for citizenship for people already here, update the visa system.