When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.

I don't care about age very much.

For people who are coming out of an oral tradition, it is very exciting to get into reading and writing and it is quite interesting how frequently people want to write their own story. Sometimes it is straight history - this is how we came about, how our town was created, a lot of that kind of effort, as soon as literacy came. The first thing you wanted to do was to put something down about who you are or how you are related to you neighbors. Then the next stage would be the stories, the cultural part of the story: this is the kind of world our ancestors made or aspired to.

Unless I'm writing in the Igbo language, I use a language developed elsewhere, which is English. That affects the way I write. It even affects to some extent the stories I write.

I have found that I work best when I am at home in Nigeria. But one learns to work in other places.

When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.

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