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The language of young men is pull down and destroy but an old man speaks of conciliation.

Chinua Achebe

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Chinua Achebe
Age: 82 †
Born: 1930
Born: November 16
Died: 2013
Died: March 22
Essayist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
Short Story Writer
University Teacher
Writer
Albert Chinualumogu Achebe
Young
Men
Conciliation
Provoking
Speaks
Pull
Destroy
Language
Speak

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My weapon is literature
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If you were to loose the habit of making the effort to get the book and read the words one by one you would have lost something terribly important. So I think that we have a task to ensure that this doesn't happen.
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I think once you have done all you can to a manuscript, let it find its way in the world.
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When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.
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I feel that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience. But it will have to be a new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit new African surroundings.
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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.
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An angry man is always a stupid man.
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I am not an early-morning person I don't like to get out of bed, and so I don't begin writing at five A.M., though some people, I hear, do. I write once my day has started. And I can work late into the night, also.
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You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies.
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When a new saying gets to the land of empty men, they lose their heads over it.
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A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.
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The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.
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When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth
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Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity.
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Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.
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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.
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The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.
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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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Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in a story, then you might begin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface it's far removed from your situation.
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There must be areas in which a particular character does not represent you.
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