“No matter what anybody says, we can’t have it all. Not if you are a woman. Not yet.”

I’ve written poems about gifts.

There are powerful forces undermining progress in Africa. But one must never underestimate the power of the people to bring about change.

O yes, everyone gets lonely some time or other.

Politicians are easy to attack, but frankly, we are all guilty of not meeting the needs of Africa’s young people properly.

Sometimes a word or an argument will trigger a poem.

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?

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.

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

Everything I hear influences me. I can’t tell you all my influences as a musician.

I’ve done a great job at being universal in my stand-up, which is why, for ‘Let Me Explain,’ I toured all over the world. These movies I have coming out – ‘Ride Along,’ ‘Grudge Match,’ ‘About Last Night,’ ‘Think Like a Man Too’ – are putting me in a position to become universal on an even bigger scale.

I see all these old people who don’t have anything to do but eat, drink and sleep.

I admit I’m being paid well, but it’s no more than I deserve. After all, I’ve been screwed more times than a hooker.

I haven’t found anywhere in the world where I want to be all the time. The best of my life is the moving. I look forward to going.

All work is noble; the only ignoble thing is to live without working.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

All of the courses that run through real streets are very demanding. There is no room for error, no shoulders to lean on.