The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. Chinua Achebe More Quotes by Chinua Achebe More Quotes From Chinua Achebe 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 plotworrycharacter 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 lightyearsneeds If one finger brings oil it soils the others. Chinua Achebe fingerssoiloil I prefer to go on trying all kinds of things, not to be told, This is the way it is done. Chinua Achebe donegoes-ontrying You must develop the habit of skepticism, not swallow every piece of superstition you are told by witch-doctors and professors. Chinua Achebe witch-doctorssuperstitionspieces The man that brings ant-infested faggots into his hut should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit. Chinua Achebe lizardspaymen A coward may cover the ground with his words but when the time comes to fight he runs away. Chinua Achebe cowardfightingrunning 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 beadsfeethands 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 differentstoriespeople 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 storytellersurvivormemories 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-provokingbravemen 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 diversityproblemideas Nigeria is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be. Chinua Achebe nigeria-independenceleadershould 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 storiesmightpeople 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 colordifferentdoors 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 cactusdoemen 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-upwritingmoving If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings. Chinua Achebe kingschildrenhands My weapon is literature Chinua Achebe weaponsliterature You do not know me,’ said Tortoise. ‘I am a changed man. I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others makes trouble for himself. Chinua Achebe tortoisestroublemen
