Chinua Achebe Quotations

There must be areas in which a particular character does not represent you.

What you must accept is that your life is not going to be the same while you are writing.

I prefer to go on trying all kinds of things, not to be told, This is the way it is done.

Just think of the work you've set yourself to do, and do it as well as you can.

If you ask me, Now, is it your best book? I would say, I don't really know. I wouldn't even want to say. And I'd even go on and say, I don't even think so.

There is something about important stories that is not just the message, but also the way that message is conveyed, the arrangement of the words, the felicity of the language. So it's really a balance between your commitment, whether it's political or economic or whatever, and your craft as an artist.

I wouldn't have wanted anyone to teach me how to write. That's my own taste. I prefer to stumble on it.

Whenever I try to do anything on a typewriter, it's like having this machine between me and the words; what comes out is not quite what would come out if I were scribbling.

There are things the story must have or else look incomplete. And these will almost automatically present themselves. When they don't, you are in trouble and then the novel stops.

Actually, I identify with all my characters, good and bad. I have to do that in order to make them genuine. I have to understand them even if I don't approve of them. Not completely - it's impossible; complete identification is, in fact, not desirable.