410 Quotes by Chinua Achebe

The air, which had been stretched taut with excitement, relaxed again.

A man who asks questions does not lose his way; that is what our fathers taught us.

And now the rains had really come, so heavy and persistent that even the village rain-maker no longer claimed to be able to intervene. He could not stop the rain now, just as he would not attempt to start it in the heart of the dry season, without serious danger to his own health. The personal dynamism required to counter the forces of these extremes of weather would be far too great for the human frame.

He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.

Art is man’s constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him.

Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit – in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever.

I have so many ideas; there are so many things that need to be done, so many possibilities, you know; one is terribly excited, but at the same time, you’re almost confused, because you don’t know where to begin.

A man’s life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors.

My son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered.