This is the most intimate relationship between literature and its readers: they treat the text as a part of themselves, as a possession.

Our job is like a baker's work - his rolls are tasty as long as they're fresh; after two days they're stale; after a week, they're covered with mould and fit only to be thrown out.

In order to feel contempt, you generally need to cherish some kind of feelings.

Our salvation is in striving to achieve what we know we'll never achieve.

Money changes all the iron rules into rubber bands.

The Cold War was waged in a particularly brutal and cynical way in Africa, and Africa seemed powerless to do anything to stop it.

A population weakened and exhausted by battling against so many obstacles - whose needs are never satisfied and desires never fulfilled - is vulnerable to manipulation and regimentation. The struggle for survival is, above all, an exercise that is hugely time-consuming, absorbing and debilitating. If you create these ''anti-conditions,'' your rule is guaranteed for a hundred years.