Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
In Africa, those who have money - businessmen and banks - do not believe in film.
The youth should come together to challenge the status quo. They must not give up.
Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.
Looking at faces of people, one gets the feeling there's a lot of work to be done.
Romance is the sweetening of the soul With fragrance offered by the stricken heart.
Some people think the Nobel Prize makes you bullet-proof. I never had that illusion.
For me, a writer is already being the deuce of his mission, his occupation to society.
I believe that each writer must decide in which language he or she is most comfortable.
Seven is the magic figure, because that's a symbolic figure of my favorite deity, Ogun.
I love beauty. But I like the beauty accidentally, not dished up, served up on a platter.
Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.
Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
Let's say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don't think we have a new Nigeria yet.
Pity you can't be present during my periodic fault-finding sessions with my image in the mirror!
The idea of having to make constant reference to politics is anathema to my calling as a writer.
Human life has meaning only to that degree and as long as it is lived in the service of humanity.
We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where.
We live in the real world - we live within a certain history of the plague that has landed on us.
I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society.
Each time I think Ive created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space.
No writer has a right to make that much money. Indeed, without diabolical assistance, no writer can.
Each time I think I've created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space.
There is something really horrific for any human being who feels he is being consumed by other people.
And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.
Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress the truth.
Military dictatorship, you can focus on it, you can fight it directly. It's a band of power-driven people.
An excessive amount of my time is taken with political involvement. It's unavoidable; that's my temperament.
Mythology can be used, and has been used, even to re-state, you know, the very urgent problems of the world.
Next to the commodities of corruption, and religion, however, Nigeria is the world capital of rumour mongering.
Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.
There are different kinds of artists and very often, I'll be very frank with you, I wish I were a different kind.
Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the ownership of land.
I like to say, 'I spend one-third of my time in Nigeria, one-third in Europe or America, and one-third on a plane.'
If you are corrupt and you have extra cash you are able to shut the mouth of your accuser and they will be silenced.
I tend to work best as a one-man Task Force, including even the roles of messenger, coffee maker and office cleaner.
It is not fair to those who fight corruption that they have to fight the aggressiveness, the impunity of the corrupt.
There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda.
When a leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost and it makes the work harder for the rest of us.
I consider the process of gestation just as important as when you're actually sitting down putting words to the paper.
Even when I'm writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I'm writing for.
All religions accept that there is something called 'criminality.' And criminality cannot be excused by religious fervour.
In the world of literature, I see prizes as more of a duty to the craft itself, rather than as something for the individual.
Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent.
I'm not sure I'm trying to communicate a message. I'm just trying to be part of the movement away from the unacceptable present.
I cannot belong to a nation which permits such barbarities as stoning to death and amputation - I don't care what religion it is.
Writers who open up horizons for other people are performing a function every bit as important as a consciously politicized writer.
Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer space.
When I say war, I'm not talking about mental war; I'm talking about totally eliminating the obstacles to transformation of our children.
Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer-space.
Before you're a writer, you're a citizen, a human being, and therefore the weapons of the citizen are at your disposal to use or not use.