Most writers who are beginners, if they are honest with themselves, will admit that they are praying for a readership as they begin to write. But it should be the quality of the craft, not the audience, that should be the greatest motivating factor.
CHINUA ACHEBEThe 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.
More Chinua Achebe Quotes
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As a rule I don’t like suffering to no purpose. Suffering should be creative, should give birth to something good and lovely.
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The language of young men is pull down and destroy; but an old man speaks of conciliation.
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When brothers fight to death a stranger inherit their father’s estate.
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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.
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Every lizard lies on its belly, so we cannot tell which has a belly-ache
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The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.
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It is praiseworthy to be brave and fearless, but sometimes it is better to be a coward. We often stand in the compound of a coward to point at the ruins where a brave man used to live.
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The singer should sing well even if it is merely to himself, rather than dance badly for the whole world.
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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.
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No man however great is greater than his people.
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When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.
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When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.
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No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man.
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Dancing is very important nowadays. No girl will look at you if you can’t dance.
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An angry man is always a stupid man.
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The lizard that jumped from a high Iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no-one else did.
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An artist in my view is always afraid of extremists; he is always afraid of those who claim to have found the ultimate solution to any question.
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You do not know me,’ said Tortoise. ‘I am a changed man. I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others makes trouble for himself.
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When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.
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Each of my books is different. Deliberately. I wanted to create my society, my people, in their fullness.
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When a man is at peace with his gods and ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm.
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If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all.
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If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings.
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When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight.
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It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have – otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.
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A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.
CHINUA ACHEBE