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
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.
memories survivor storyteller
It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.
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.
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.
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!
leader should nigeria-independence
Nigeria is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be.
men beaten
There was a saying in Umuofia that as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him.
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.
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.
men thought-provoking brave
It is praiseworthy to be brave and fearless, but sometimes it is better to be a coward. We often stand in the compound of a coward to point at the ruins where a brave man used to live.
world-suffering doors thought-provoking
When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.
business debt may
A debt may get mouldy, but it never decays.
running toads doe
A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing