Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate that the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself.

In the vocabulary of certain radical theorists contradictions are given the status of some deadly disease to which their opponents alone can succumb. But contradictions are the very stuff of life. If there had been a little dash of contradiction among the Gadarene swine some of them might have been saved from drowning.

A man to whom you do a favor will not understand if you say nothing, make no noise, just walk away. You may cause more trouble by refusing a bribe than by accepting it.

The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.

Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality.

When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don't just turn it off one day.

A pen on paper is the ideal way for me. I am not really very comfortable with machines; I never learned to type very well.