Every lizard lies on its belly, so we cannot tell which has a belly-ache

An artist, in my understanding of the word, should side with the people against the Emperor that oppresses his or her people.

I am against people reaping where they have not sown.

Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior.

The lizard that jumped from a high Iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no-one else did.

I am against people reaping where they have not sown. But we have a saying that if you want to eat a toad you should look for a fat and juicy one.

Diversity is not an abnormality but the very reality of our planet. The human world manifests the same reality and will not seek our permission to celebrate itself in the magnificence of its endless varieties. Civility is a sensible attribute in this kind of world we have; narrowness of heart and mind is not.

Do you blame a vulture for perching over a carcass?

If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.

Africa is to Europe as the picture is to Dorian Gray-a carrier onto whom the master unloads his physical & moral deformities

The lizard that jumped from a high Iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no-one else did.

Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.

No man however great is greater than his people

One reason why I am quite angry with what is happening in Nigeria today is that everything has collapsed. If I decide to go back now, there will be so many problems – where will I find the physical therapy and other things that I now require?

I think not just Nigeria but I think the whole of Africa has to turn back to the rural areas and that’s where the majority of the citizens are and that’s where the engine of of development has to be found.

Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.

What I can say is that it was clear to many of us that an indigenous African literary renaissance was overdue. A major objective was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent, and to recast them through stories- prose, poetry, essays, and books for our children. That was my overall goal.

The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use.

Now one of the changes that must come to Africa is the idea of limited rule, I mean in term of how long one leader can stay in power. The era of president for life is not gone yet but it is on its way out and that is one of the problems with Mugabe and others.

When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.

While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.

You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies.

When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.

A man of worth never gets up to unsay what he said yesterday.

People go to Africa and confirm what they already have in their heads and so they fail to see what is there in front of them. This is what people have come to expect. Its not viewed as a serious continent. Its a place of strange, bizarre and illogical things, where people dont do what common sense demands.

The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.

There is no story that is not true.

There is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless.

The impatient idealist says: ‘Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.’ But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.

A goat does not eat into a hen’s stomach no matter how friendly the two may be.

A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness

As long as one people sit on another and are deaf to their cry, so long will understanding and peace elude all of us.

A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.

The damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair.

If you don’t like someones story, write your own.

The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.

A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself.

Become familiar with your home, but know also about your neighbors.

We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own.