“My definition of slavery is the deprivation of human volition, any form of relationship between two peoples which is based on the deprivation of volition of one side.”

A human feast is an indifferent morsel to a god.

When I say war, I’m not talking about mental war; I’m talking about totally eliminating the obstacles to transformation of our children.

There’s a lot of insincerity about the actions of our legislators; they create distractions – like this anti-gay law you alluded to – and try to mobilise, to exacerbate people’s emotions. Until the legislators started making laws, people minded, generally, their own business.

I don’t know any other way to live but to wake up everyday armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.

I can look violence in the face and either reject or accept it.

Romance is the sweetening of the soul With fragrance offered by the stricken heart.

We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where.

Intolerance has always been with us, you know. The moment you have ideology, we have intolerance, whether it’s the secular ideology or, you know ideocratic ideology, which always brings with it some kind of intolerance.

My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a certain point, the human point in which everything is related to one another. That has been my creative experience.

Governance can dig itself into a huge hole and not even know it’s in there.

I believe that each writer must decide in which language he or she is most comfortable.

The writer is the visionary of his people… He anticipates, he warns.

Well, some people say I’m pessimistic because I recognize the eternal cycle of evil. All I say is, look at the history of mankind right up to this moment and what do you find?

I am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wished we’d never smelled the fumes of petroleum.

You accept whoever you are interacting with, directly, or indirectly.

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.

The fan base that I’ve had all these years has come along.

It’s actually safe to create a universe in your basement.

Regulation – which is based on force and fear – undermines the moral base of business dealings. It becomes cheaper to bribe a building inspector than to meet his standards of construction. Protection of the consumer by regulation is thus illusory.

In one book, CACHALOT, just for my own amusement, every character is based directly on someone I have known.

All change requires effort and sacrifice. Sometimes action plans fail because they are based on the idea that there is a ‘magic bullet’ which on its own can solve our problems.

I don’t watch anything on a regular basis – I tend to binge-watch things.

He signed as a shortstop. He could play the outfield, of course, and third base and first, too. He was a tremendous athlete. Mickey Mantle was unbelievable, too.

I would slide into second with my prostheses, and the girl on the base could either step aside or meet two wooden sticks.