The lizard that jumped from a high Iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no-one else did.

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.

A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.

Nobody 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.

I think writers are not only writers, they are also citizens.

I am not an early-morning person; I don't like to get out of bed, and so I don't begin writing at five A.M., though some people, I hear, do. I write once my day has started. And I can work late into the night, also.

Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.