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Stories Quotes by Chinua Achebe

38 Stories quotes by Chinua Achebe

All Stories quotes Chinua Achebe’s page

Chinua Achebe reflects on how stories shape who we are and what a culture believes. He notes that writing in a language not our own changes the tale, and that staying still makes us miss the grace of moving. He encourages people to write their own stories if they dislike others.

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If you don't like someone's story, write your own.

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There is no story that is not true.

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Nigeria has had a complicated colonial history. My work has examined that part of our story extensively.

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People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.

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When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.

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If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all.

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It has always been quite apparent to me that no important story can fail to tell us something of value to us.

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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…

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If you don't like someone's story, write your own. If you don't like what somebody says, say what it is you don't…

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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…

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Children are young, but they're not naive. And they're honest. They're not going to keep wide awake if the story is boring.…

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Stories serve the purpose of consolidating whatever gains people or their leaders have made or imagine they have made in their existing…

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Unless I'm writing in the Igbo language, I use a language developed elsewhere, which is English. That affects the way I write.…

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If you're rooted to a spot, you miss a lot of the grace. So you keep moving, and this is the way…

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It is only the story...that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence.The story is…

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It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the…

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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…

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There is something about important stories that is not just the message, but also the way that message is conveyed, the arrangement…

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What I can say is that it was clear to many of us that an indigenous African literary renaissance was overdue. A…

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When I'm writing, I really want to satisfy myself. I've got a story that I am working on and struggling with, and…

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I think as you grow up and you see things which are around you and you ask questions and you hear the…

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Writing has always been a serious business for me. I felt it was a moral obligation. A major concern of the time…

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Art is created to make us, to make our passage through the world better, fruitful - and I would say that every…

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There is that great proverb - that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify…

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Writing is like wrestling; you are wrestling with ideas and with the story. There is a lot of energy required. At the…

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For people who are coming out of an oral tradition, it is very exciting to get into reading and writing and it…

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There are things the story must have or else look incomplete. And these will almost automatically present themselves. When they don't, you…

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Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior. The story outlives the sound of the war drum... The story…

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I couldn't tell you why but now I know a story is in fact where you discover who you are, where a…

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“...stories are not always innocent;...they can be used to put you in the wrong crowd, in the party of the man who…

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In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I…

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We have heard stories about white men who make the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the…

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This is not pessimism but rather casting a cold eye on things. It is only one man's story, and I think that…

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When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands. In one of…

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We live in a society that is in transition from oral to written. There are oral stories that are still there, not…

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I believe in the complexity of the human story, and that there's no way you can tell that story in one way…

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The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a…

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Some people flinch when you talk about art in the context of the needs of society thinking you are introducing something far…

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More by 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…

“Do not despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general…

My son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered

“And so Mr. Brown came to be respected even by the clan, because he trod softly on its faith.”

“I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others is also making it for himself.”

In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I began to…

I find Nigeria very frustrating. I am not alone in this. There are many Nigerians abroad. As you know, the brain drain is just…

I do not actually see how art, literature can be anything other that being in that domain of trying to tell us, trying to…

Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We…

When there is a big tree small ones climb on its back to reach the sun.

When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands. In one of my essays,…

Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane. H. P. LOVECRAFT, attributed, Telling It Like It Is Dancing is very important nowadays.…

This is why I find racism impossible, because this is against humanity.

“Then listen to me,' he said and cleared his throat. 'It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats…

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