I don't want to be the one to tell somebody, You will not make it, even though I know that the majority of those who come to me with their manuscripts are not really good enough.
Chinua AchebePerhaps 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. Okonkwoโs fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself.
Chinua AchebeI do not actually see how art, literature can be anything other that being in that domain of trying to tell us, trying to get us to see what is important in our lives.
Chinua AchebeNobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself.
Chinua Achebe