I cannot accept the definition of collective good as articulated by a privileged minority in society, especially when that minority is in power.
You go to conferences, and your fellow African intellectuals – and even heads of state – they all say: ‘Nigeria is a big disappointment. It is the shame of the African continent.’
I am a glutton for tranquility.
A human feast is an indifferent morsel to a god.
If man cannot, what god dare claim perfection?
My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.
The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don’t consider myself a novelist.
See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome.
There are different kinds of artists and very often, I’ll be very frank with you, I wish I were a different kind.
I don’t really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.
But theater, because of its nature, both text, images, multimedia effects, has a wider base of communication with an audience. That’s why I call it the most social of the various art forms.
But when you’re deprived of it for a lengthy period then you value human companionship. But you have to survive and so you devise all kinds of mental exercises and it’s amazing.
Even when I’m writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I’m writing for.
Well, some people say I’m pessimistic because I recognize the eternal cycle of evil. All I say is, look at the history of mankind right up to this moment and what do you find?
I found, when I left, that there were others who felt the same way. We’d meet, they’d come and seek me out, we’d talk about the future. And I found that their depression and pessimism was every bit as acute as mine.
Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer-space.
And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.
I know there are writers who get up every morning and sit by their typewriter or word processor or pad of paper and wait to write. I don’t function that way. I go through a long period of gestation before I’m even ready to write.
Don’t take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
We do not ask the mountain’s aid to crack a walnut.