When there is a big tree small ones climb on its back to reach the sun.

I think that is one of the first things that I got clear in my mind when I began to play around with fiction, that I had to find a language and it was not in existance at the time. You have put it very well - it wasn't to be taken for granted. You had to go on and search until you found a way through the conversation of English and Igbo. The two languages stuck into each other and tried to find a way to express through one, the medium of the thoughts. That's a very exciting thing to do, a very difficult thing to do.

The writer cannot expect to be excused from the task of reeducation and regeneration that must be done. In fact, he should march right in front.

Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior. The story outlives the sound of the war drum... The story is our escort. Without it we are blind... It is the thing that sets us apart from cattle.

You don't ever want to say to a young person, You can't, or, You are no good. Some people might be able to do it, but I don't think I am a policeman for literature. So I tell them, Sweat it out, do your best.

When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.

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.