There is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless.

You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies.

No man however great is greater than his people

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.

I think Africa is slowly learning - and painfully - that importance of insisting on responsible leadership. It will come eventually, and we may be impatient and rightly so, because it is not coming fast enough. But that is the way to go.

I teach literature. That's easy for me. Take someone else's work and talk about it.

The impatient idealist says: 'Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.' But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.