"Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged."
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Quote collection
Chinua Achebe quotes (page 3 of 15)
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"When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight."
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"The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use."
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"Whatever music you beat on your drum there is somebody who can dance to it."
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"I believe in the complexity of the human story, and that there's no way you can tell that story in one way and say, 'this is it.' Always there will be someone who can tell it differently depending on where they are standing ... this is the way I think the world's stories should be told: from many different perspectives."
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"When the British came to Ibo land, for instance, at the beginning of the 20th century, and defeated the men in pitched battles in different places, and set up their administrations, the men surrendered. And it was the women who led the first revolt."
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"The world is large,” said Okonkwo. “I have even heard that in some tribes a man’s children belong to his wife and her family.” “That cannot be,” said Machi. “You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies."
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"What a country needs to do is be fair to all its citizens - whether people are of a different ethnicity or gender."
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"Art is man's constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him."
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"We live in a society that is in transition from oral to written. There are oral stories that are still there, not exactly in their full magnificence, but still strong in their differentness from written stories. Each mode has its ways and methods and rules. They can reinforce each other; this is the advantage my generation has - we can bring to the written story something of that energy of the story told by word of mouth."
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"What I can say is that it was clear to many of us that an indigenous African literary renaissance was overdue. A major objective was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent, and to recast them through stories- prose, poetry, essays, and books for our children. That was my overall goal."
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"People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories."
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"Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten."
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"Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality."
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"It is only the story...that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence.The story is our escort;without it,we are blind.Does the blind man own his escort?No,neither do we the story;rather,it is the story that owns us."
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"I think not just Nigeria but I think the whole of Africa has to turn back to the rural areas and that's where the majority of the citizens are and that's where the engine of of development has to be found."
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"The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience."
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"There is that great proverb - that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. That did not come to me until much later. Once I realized that, I had to be a writer. I had to be that historian. It's not one man's job. It's not one person's job. But it is something we have to do, so that the story of the hunt will also reflect the agony, the travail - the bravery, even, of the lions."
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"You do not know me,’ said Tortoise. ‘I am a changed man. I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others makes trouble for himself."
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"One reason why I am quite angry with what is happening in Nigeria today is that everything has collapsed. If I decide to go back now, there will be so many problems - where will I find the physical therapy and other things that I now require?"
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