Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebewas a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apartwas considered his magnum opus, and is the most widely read book in modern African literature...
NationalityNigerian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth16 November 1930
CityOgidi, Nigeria
CountryNigeria
growing-up thinking people
I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life.
one-day goes-on tradition
When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don't just turn it off one day.
uprising government problem
The problem with leaderless uprisings taking over is that you don't always know what you get at the other end. If you are not careful you could replace a bad government with one much worse!
writing thought-provoking stories
If you don't like someone's story, write your own.
charity philanthropy opium
Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged.
people stories world
There is no story that is not true, [...] The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.
people stories faces
It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the mark on the face that sets one people apart from their neighbors.
running toads doe
A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing
morning men yams
Man is sitting disconsolate on an anthill one morning. God asks him what the matter is and man replies that the soil is too swampy for the cultivation of the yams which God has directed him to grow. God tells him to bring in a blacksmith to dry the soil with his bellows. The contribution of humanity to this creation is so important. God could have made the world perfect if he had wanted. But he made it the way it is. So that there is a constant need for us to discuss and cooperate to make it more habitable, so the soil can yield, you see.
men trouble
A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself.
thought-provoking
The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience.
people mouths aging
When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.
years democracy wake-up
Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.
character worry plot
Once a novel gets going and I know it is viable, I don't then worry about plot or themes. These things will come in almost automatically because the characters are now pulling the story.