The man that brings ant-infested faggots into his hut should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit.

Almost 30 years before Rwanda, before Darfur, more than 2 million people - mothers, children, babies, civilians - lost their lives as a result of the blatantly callous and unnecessary policies enacted by the leaders of the federal government of Nigeria. It's this charge that's dominated the book's Nigerian press, so far as I can see, the accusation, on the one hand, that Awolowo hatched "a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation - eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.

When Rimbaud became a slave trader, he stopped writing poetry.

Just think of the work you've set yourself to do, and do it as well as you can.

When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk

I teach literature. That's easy for me. Take someone else's work and talk about it.

There is a certain increase in the importance I assign to women in getting us out of the mess that we are in, which is a reflection of the role of women in my traditional culture - that they do not interfere in politics until men really make such a mess that the society is unable to go backward or forward. Then women will move in.