We live in the real world - we live within a certain history of the plague that has landed on us.

I believe that each writer must decide in which language he or she is most comfortable.

Of course I've enjoyed having the Nobel Prize, the prestige that goes along with it, the money that came with it in particular. I was the typical, still am to some extent, impecunious writer, just struggling to make ends meet, so that, nobody's going to deny that at all. In fact, if they want to give it to me a second time, I'm standing by, ready to receive it, but it's a problem, it's a real problem and then expectations and then you have monsters like Sani Abacha who come up from time to time and who would have died a happy man if he'd succeeded in hanging a Nobel Laureate for literature.

Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of a community can be, a hero always emerges. Although no one can dare claim that it is now a perfect state, and that no more work is needed, Rwanda has risen from the ashes as a model or truth and reconciliation.

When I say war, I'm not talking about mental war; I'm talking about totally eliminating the obstacles to transformation of our children.

One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer.

It's the place to begin, always -- to return to home, literally.