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

The women are, of course, the biggest single group of oppressed people in the world and, if we are to believe the Book of Genesis, the very oldest.

Every lizard lies on its belly, so we cannot tell which has a belly-ache

The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use. The African writer should aim to use English in a way that brings out his message best without altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. He should aim at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience.

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

Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.

There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.