The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use. Chinua Achebe More Quotes by Chinua Achebe More Quotes From Chinua Achebe The lizard that jumped from a high Iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no-one else did. Chinua Achebe lizardspraisetree Dancing is very important nowadays. No girl will look at you if you can't dance. Chinua Achebe girldancingimportant A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself. Chinua Achebe thought-provokingmenreality 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 reflectionmenmoving Procrastination is a lazy man's apology. Chinua Achebe apologyprocrastinationmen 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 careerswritingthinking If you don't like someone's story, write your own. Chinua Achebe thought-provokingstorieswriting My son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered Chinua Achebe thought-provokingsonfall 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 agingmouthspeople An artist, in my understanding of the word, should side with the people against the Emperor that oppresses his or her people. Chinua Achebe understandingartistpeople 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 runningnumberstalking 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 opponentsvocabularydisease 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 realchallengesyears 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 purposesomewhere-elsewant It has always been quite apparent to me that no important story can fail to tell us something of value to us. Chinua Achebe failingimportantstories 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 simplepeopleworld 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 racismheartthinking 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 storiespeopleworld There was a saying in Umuofia that as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him. Chinua Achebe beatenmen Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Chinua Achebe kingschildrenhands
