In Nigeria, there is energy, whether it is Lagos, which is sheer anarchy, but it is not lethargic. It is strong, even aggressive and if that energy could be directed to work it will produce really enormous results. Chinua Achebe More Quotes by Chinua Achebe More Quotes From Chinua Achebe 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. Chinua Achebe toads juicy people The lizard that jumped from a high Iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no-one else did. Chinua Achebe lizards praise tree Dancing is very important nowadays. No girl will look at you if you can't dance. Chinua Achebe girl dancing important A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself. Chinua Achebe thought-provoking men reality There is a certain increase in the importance I assign to women in getting us out of the mess that we are in, which is a reflection of the role of women in my traditional culture - that they do not interfere in politics until men really make such a mess that the society is unable to go backward or forward. Then women will move in. Chinua Achebe reflection men moving Procrastination is a lazy man's apology. Chinua Achebe apology procrastination men I did not think of writing as a career and I don't think that I did this ever really, but I think of writing as something that I could do, I should do alongside whatever else I was doing. It simply grew on me. Chinua Achebe careers writing thinking If you don't like someone's story, write your own. Chinua Achebe thought-provoking stories writing My son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered Chinua Achebe thought-provoking son fall 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. Chinua Achebe aging mouths people An artist, in my understanding of the word, should side with the people against the Emperor that oppresses his or her people. Chinua Achebe understanding artist people The ordinary Nigerians have lived as neighbors down the millennia. I was talking about the British who came and merged a whole number of mini states and big states into one unit. But those people were always there, and they always managed to live side by side with their neighbours. So they were not owned or run by one kingdom. It was not practically impossible for these people when they have different languages and religions to be neighbors. So it is that habit of neighbourliness which is destroyed and put under great strain again and again when you have things like massacres. Chinua Achebe running numbers talking In the vocabulary of certain radical theorists contradictions are given the status of some deadly disease to which their opponents alone can succumb. But contradictions are the very stuff of life. If there had been a little dash of contradiction among the Gadarene swine some of them might have been saved from drowning. Chinua Achebe opponents vocabulary disease The reality of today, different as it is from the reality of my society one hundred years ago, is and can be important if we have the energy and the inclination to challenge it, to go out and engage with its peculiarities, with the things that we do not understand. The real danger is the tendency to retreat into the obvious, the tendency to be frightened by the richness of the world and to clutch what we always have understood. Chinua Achebe real challenges years We don't want to be simply wandering about without some kind of reason, we want our presence here to have a purpose, and that we are not going to end here, we are going to proceed somewhere else, and also that we didn't begin here, that we began somewhere else and all that living, all that elaborate account of our presence seems to be quite basic to our nature and so this is what literacy taps into. Chinua Achebe purpose somewhere-else want It has always been quite apparent to me that no important story can fail to tell us something of value to us. Chinua Achebe failing important stories Africa is people" may seem too simple and too obvious to some of us. But I have found in the course of my travels through the world that the most simple things can still givwe us a lot of trouble, even the brightest among us: this is particularly so in matters concerning Africa. Chinua Achebe simple people world When I think of the standing, the importance and the erudition of all these people who see nothing about racism in Heart of Darkness, I'm convinced that we must really be living in different worlds. Chinua Achebe racism heart thinking There is no story that is not true, [...] The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others. Chinua Achebe stories people world There was a saying in Umuofia that as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him. Chinua Achebe beaten men
