We don't want to be simply wandering about without some kind of reason, we want our presence here to have a purpose, and that we are not going to end here, we are going to proceed somewhere else, and also that we didn't begin here, that we began somewhere else and all that living, all that elaborate account of our presence seems to be quite basic to our nature and so this is what literacy taps into.

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

It is not quite true to say that I am not an advocate of writing in African languages. What I think is, one has to think about what is practicable.

My son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered

Serious and good art has always existed to help, to serve, humanity. Not to indict.

If one finger brings oil it soils the others.

I was a supporter of the desire, in my section of Nigeria, to leave the federation because it was treated very badly with something that was called genocide in those days.