I was born left-handed, but I was made to use my other hand. When I was writing 'Famished Road,' which was very long, I got repetitive stress syndrome. My right wrist collapsed, so I started using my left hand. The prose I wrote with my left hand came out denser, so later on I had to change it.

I went to London because, for me, it was the home of literature. I went there because of Dickens and Shakespeare.

The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing.

Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.

In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.

Don't despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see them perish. Because the best things are always growing in secret.

I lived rough, by my wits, was homeless, lived on the streets, lived on friends' floors, was happy, was miserable.