In the vocabulary of certain radical theorists contradictions are given the status of some deadly disease to which their opponents alone can succumb. But contradictions are the very stuff of life. If there had been a little dash of contradiction among the Gadarene swine some of them might have been saved from drowning.

Once you have really done all you can, then you can show it to people. But I find this is increasingly not the case with the younger people. They do a first draft and want somebody to finish it off for them with good advice.

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.

Anybody who wants to rule a group will find that if this group is quarreling among themselves they leave you alone.

Each of my books is different. Deliberately... I wanted to create my society, my people, in their fullness.

I wouldn't have wanted anyone to teach me how to write. That's my own taste. I prefer to stumble on it.

When a man is at peace with his gods and ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm.