Each of my books is different. Deliberately... I wanted to create my society, my people, in their fullness.

— Chinua Achebe

Every generation must recognize and embrace the task it is peculiarly designed by history and by providence to perform.

— Chinua Achebe

I do not know how to thank you.'' I can tell you,' said Bearing. 'Kill one of your sons for me.'' That will not be enough,' said Okonkwo.' Then kill yourself,' said Bearing.

— Chinua Achebe

I don't care about age very much.

— Chinua Achebe

I don't care about age very much. I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life.

— Chinua Achebe

I feel that there has to be a purpose to what we do. If there was no hope at all, we should just sleep or drink and wait for death. But we don’t want to do that. And why? I think something tells us that we should struggle. We don’t really know why we should struggle, but we do, because we think it’s better than sitting down and waiting for calamity.

— Chinua Achebe

If we have any role at all, I think it’s the role of optimism, not blind or stupid optimism, but the kind which is meaningful, one that is rather close to that notion of the world which is not perfect, but which can be improved. In other words, we don’t just sit and hope that things will work out; we have a role to play to make that come about.

— Chinua Achebe

I liked Yeats! That wild Irishman. I really loved his love of language, his flow. His chaotic ideas seemed to me just the right thing for a poet. Passion! He was always on the right side. He may be wrongheaded, but his heart was always on the right side. Furthermore, he wrote beautiful poetry.

— Chinua Achebe

In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I began to feel that the story that I was told about this religion wasn't perhaps completely whole, that something was left out.

— Chinua Achebe

In such a regime, I say you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and shoot your murdered in the chest - without asking to be paid.

— Chinua Achebe