Writers who open up horizons for other people are performing a function every bit as important as a consciously politicized writer.

Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.

You cannot live a normal existence if you haven't taken care of a problem that affects your life and affects the lives of others, values that you hold which in fact define your very existence.

Well, some people say I'm pessimistic because I recognize the eternal cycle of evil. All I say is, look at the history of mankind right up to this moment and what do you find?

I can look violence in the face and either reject or accept it.

Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped.

Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others.