A debt may get mouldy, but it never decays.
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.
There was a saying in Umuofia that as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him.
Nigeria is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be.
You must develop the habit of skepticism, not swallow every piece of superstition you are told by witch-doctors and professors.
If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own. If you don’t like what somebody says, say what it is you don’t like.
The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.
Oh, the most important thing about myself is that my life has been full of changes. Therefore, when I observe the world, I don’t expect to see it just like I was seeing the fellow who lives in the next room.
My weapon is literature.
A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.
When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.
A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself.
I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life.
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.
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.
Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.
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.
Every generation must recognize and embrace the task it is peculiarly designed by history and by providence to perform.
When the British came to Ibo land, for instance, at the beginning of the 20th century, and defeated the men in pitched battles in different places, and set up their administrations, the men surrendered. And it was the women who led the first revolt.
Writers don’t give prescriptions. They give headaches!