Ayobami Adebayo

I think, for women in particular, it's kind of like you're expected to get married, have a child, and then you get to be a person. But you don't need someone else - be it a spouse or child - to complete or validate your existence. Being human is enough and should be enough, and I hope that we all come to a point where we can accept that.

I think a large part of being human centers on the state of being alone, and we try to mitigate that in so many ways.

I have always been very interested in the idea of loneliness and the presumption that romantic relationships are supposed to rid you of that.

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

My mother has a lot of sisters. They had very, very interesting conversations. Because I was a quiet child, I would sit in the room and listen to these stories. I think I developed a curiosity about the life of other people from that, and an interest in looking at what was lying beneath the layer of what people present in public.

I wanted to explore expectations we have of people - what a woman should be, what a man should be. And if they don't meet our own interpretation of who they should be because of their gender, their background, their ethnic group, we then come to conclusions about them that are not accurate.

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?

I am interested in the idea that people should be able to define their own happiness.