“the best way to sharpen a knife is not to whet one side of it only. And neither can you solve a riddle by considering only one end of it.”

Ghana is like a lion without a head

At the age of 15, a teacher had asked me what I wanted to do for a career, and without knowing why or even how I replied that I wanted to be a poet.

Things are working out… towards their dazzling conclusions.

Humans, not places, make memories.

Once in a while I catch myself wondering whether I would have found the courage to write if I had not started to write when I was too young to know what was good for me.

Love is fine for singing about and love songs are good to listen to, sometimes even to dance to. But when we need food for our stomachs and clothes for our backs, love is nothing. Ah my lady, the last man any woman should think of marrying is the man she loves.

Once an interesting idea or theme occurs to me then I would want to write a poem about it. The rest, frankly, is not difficult.

The very old certainly do not go back on lunch remains but they do bite back at old conversational topics.

After all, if we look closer into ourselves, shall we not admit that the warmth from other people comes so sweet to us when it comes, because, we always carry with us the knowledge of the cold loneliness of death?

People are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics.

Toyin Falola has given us what is truly rare in modern African writing: a seriously funny, racy, irreverent package of memories, and full of the most wonderful pieces of poetry and ordinary information.

It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian.

For us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass, and fight corruption and authoritarianism.

I always wanted to write poetry, even when I was very young.

They had always told me that I wrote like a man.

Life is inspirational; sometimes it comes from the most unlikely places.

You always want to win. That is why you play tennis, because you love the sport and try to be the best you can at it.

The best picture is around the corner. Like prosperity.

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.

I don’t go there thinking I’m going to lose. I never go into a tournament thinking that. I’ll do the best that I can. I need to be at my peak and my best is holding up the trophy. Anything less I wouldn’t be really excited about. So that’s all I can focus on.

I always believe I can beat the best, achieve the best. I always see myself in the top position.

Aiming for perfection causes frustration at best and paralysis at worst.

It often happens that those are the best people whose characters have been most injured by slanderers: as we usually find that to be the sweetest fruit which the birds have been picking at.