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.

Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit -- in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever.

While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.

The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery.

I think the language that we use in dealing with one another is very important. And even if I am called upon to bring out some money to support a regime, and I am entitled to say I do not like what that regime does and obviously I am not going to put money there - you cannot really say this is wrong or this is unreasonable.

People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that's the time to do something about it, not when it's around your neck.

A man who does not lick his lips, can he blame the harmattan for drying them?