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

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
Ancestor
Transition
Brought
Series
Birth
Rites
Death
Rite
Men
Nearer
Life
Ancestors

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The writer is often faced with two choices--turn away from the reality of life's intimidating complexity or conquer its mystery by battling with it. The writer who chooses the former soon runs out of energy and produces elegantly tired fiction.
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I think dialects should be left alone. People should write in whatever dialect they feel they want to write. In the fullness of time, these dialects will sort themselves out.
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Whatever music you beat on your drum there is somebody who can dance to it.
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While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.
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I think the language that we use in dealing with one another is very important. And even if I am called upon to bring out some money to support a regime, and I am entitled to say I do not like what that regime does and obviously I am not going to put money there - you cannot really say this is wrong or this is unreasonable.
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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.
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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.
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Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world like the young antelope who danced herself lame when the main dance was yet to come.
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When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight.
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As long as one people sit on another and are deaf to their cry, so long will understanding and peace elude all of us.
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He is a fool who treats his brother worse than a stranger.
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What a country needs to do is be fair to all its citizens - whether people are of a different ethnicity or gender.
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If the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess, her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender. As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled all the others.
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I'm a practised writer now. But when I began, I had no idea what this was going to be. I just knew that there was something inside me that wanted me to tell who I was, and that would have come out even if I didn't want it.
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An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb
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That we are surrounded by deep mysteries is known to all but the incurably ignorant.
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I tell my students, it's not difficult to identify with somebody like yourself, somebody next door who looks like you. What's more difficult is to identify with someone you don't see, who's very far away, who's a different color, who eats a different kind of food. When you begin to do that then literature is really performing its wonders.
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Anybody who wants to rule a group will find that if this group is quarreling among themselves they leave you alone.
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...when we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.
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What is modesty but inverted pride?
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