The problem with leaderless uprisings taking over is that you don't always know what you get at the other end. If you are not careful you could replace a bad government with one much worse! Chinua Achebe More Quotes by Chinua Achebe More Quotes From Chinua Achebe 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 kings children hands Once a novel gets going and I know it is viable, I don't then worry about plot or themes. These things will come in almost automatically because the characters are now pulling the story. Chinua Achebe plot worry character The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery. Chinua Achebe light years needs If one finger brings oil it soils the others. Chinua Achebe fingers soil oil I prefer to go on trying all kinds of things, not to be told, This is the way it is done. Chinua Achebe done goes-on trying You must develop the habit of skepticism, not swallow every piece of superstition you are told by witch-doctors and professors. Chinua Achebe witch-doctors superstitions pieces The man that brings ant-infested faggots into his hut should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit. Chinua Achebe lizards pay men A coward may cover the ground with his words but when the time comes to fight he runs away. Chinua Achebe coward fighting running If I hold her hand she says, ‘Don’t touch!’ If I hold her foot she says ‘Don’t touch!’ But when I hold her waist-beads she pretends not to know. Chinua Achebe beads feet hands It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the mark on the face that sets one people apart from their neighbors. Chinua Achebe different stories people It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning. Chinua Achebe storyteller survivor memories It is praiseworthy to be brave and fearless, but sometimes it is better to be a coward. We often stand in the compound of a coward to point at the ruins where a brave man used to live. Chinua Achebe thought-provoking brave men The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great diversity - that it's this or maybe that - you have just one large statement; it is this. Chinua Achebe diversity problem ideas Nigeria is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be. Chinua Achebe nigeria-independence leader should Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in a story, then you might begin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface it's far removed from your situation. Chinua Achebe stories might people I tell my students, it's not difficult to identify with somebody like yourself, somebody next door who looks like you. What's more difficult is to identify with someone you don't see, who's very far away, who's a different color, who eats a different kind of food. When you begin to do that then literature is really performing its wonders. Chinua Achebe color different doors It is only the story...that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence.The story is our escort;without it,we are blind.Does the blind man own his escort?No,neither do we the story;rather,it is the story that owns us. Chinua Achebe cactus doe men I think as you grow up and you see things which are around you and you ask questions and you hear the answers, your situation becomes more and more of a puzzle. Now, why is it like this, why are things like this and since writing is one way in which one can ask this questions and try to find these answers, it seems to me a very natural thing to do, especially as it meant stories which I always found moving, almost unbearably necessary. Chinua Achebe growing-up writing moving If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings. Chinua Achebe kings children hands My weapon is literature Chinua Achebe weapons literature
