A man of worth never gets up to unsay what he said yesterday.

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

When we hear a house has fallen do we ask if the ceiling fell with it?

Some people flinch when you talk about art in the context of the needs of society thinking you are introducing something far too common for a discussion of art. Why should art have a purpose and a use? Art shouldn't be concerned with purpose and reason and need, they say. These are improper. But from the very beginning, it seems to me, stories have indeed been meant to be enjoyed, to appeal to that part of us which enjoys good form and good shape and good sound.

Almost 30 years before Rwanda, before Darfur, more than 2 million people - mothers, children, babies, civilians - lost their lives as a result of the blatantly callous and unnecessary policies enacted by the leaders of the federal government of Nigeria. It's this charge that's dominated the book's Nigerian press, so far as I can see, the accusation, on the one hand, that Awolowo hatched "a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation - eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.

Real tragedy is never resolved. It goes on hopelessly for ever.

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.