I am disturbed for instance when I read that a candidate said, 'I will not probe anybody or something like that'. You don't fight corruption by sweeping everything under the carpet, you don't.

There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda.

Romance is the sweetening of the soul With fragrance offered by the stricken heart.

Let's say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don't think we have a new Nigeria yet.

The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist.

I don’t know any other way to live but to wake up everyday armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.

My interest in culture generally is a comparative one, and I think that's where the word joy, I think, can be applicable. There's joy in actually seeing the relatedness, the connectedness of different cultures or recognising, for instance, your own culture in another or another culture in your own culture and feeling an air to all of them.