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" The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist. "

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" There is something really horrific for any human being who feels he is being consumed by other people. I'm talking about a writer's critics, who don't address what you've written, but want to probe into your existence and magnify the trivia of your life without any sense of humor, without any sense of context. "

" My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being. "

" If African film makers had one-tenth the amount commanded by film makers the world over - even the amount used by so-called shoestring film makers - I think we would see quite an explosion of African films on the world scene. "

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

" After the death of the sadistic dictator Gen. Sanni Abacha in 1998, Nigeria underwent a one-year transitional military administration headed by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who uncharacteristically bowed out precisely on the promised date for military disengagement. Did the military truly disengage, however? No. "

" The blatant aggressiveness of theocracies I find distressing, because I grew up when Christians, Muslim and animists lived peacefully together. "

" Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped. "

" I cannot belong to a nation which permits such barbarities as stoning to death and amputation - I don't care what religion it is. "

" I don't have the sort of temperament that submits to Christianity or Islam. "

" Nigeria has had the misfortune - no, the fortune - of seeing the worst face of capitalism anywhere in Africa. The masses have seen it, they are disgusted, and they want an alternative. "

" I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself. "

" Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer space. "

" In the world of literature, I see prizes as more of a duty to the craft itself, rather than as something for the individual. "

" I began writing early - very, very early... I was already writing short stories for the radio and selling poems to poetry and art festivals; I was involved in school plays; I wrote essays, so there was no definite moment when I said, 'Now I'm a writer.' I've always been a writer. "

" Human life has meaning only to that degree and as long as it is lived in the service of humanity. "

" The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular, have been playing for time in order to conclude its mission of ethnic cleansing in the Sudan. "

" Military dictatorship, you can focus on it, you can fight it directly. It's a band of power-driven people. "

" A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice. "

" Seven is the magic figure, because that's a symbolic figure of my favorite deity, Ogun. "

" My father was a schoolteacher, and so I had the advantage of both western educational instruction in the school, as well as what you might call the process of imbibing the traditional processes of education instruction around me. "

" There's a kind of dynamic quality about theater and that dynamic quality expresses itself in relation to, first of all, the environment in which it's being staged; then the audience, the nature of the audience, the quality of the audience. "

" For me, justice is the prime condition of humanity. "

" There's something about the theater which makes my fingertips tingle. "

" Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie. "

" Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal. "

" We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where. "

" All religions accept that there is something called 'criminality.' And criminality cannot be excused by religious fervour. "

" I've done a lot of guerrilla theater in my time. "

" Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent. "

" Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the ownership of land. "