The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail.

Even when I'm writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I'm writing for.

And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.

I think that feeling that if one believed absolutely in any cause, then one must have the confidence, the self-certainty, to go through with that particular course of action.

There are different kinds of artists and very often, I'll be very frank with you, I wish I were a different kind.

Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.

I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.

There's a kind of dynamic quality about theater and that dynamic quality expresses itself in relation to, first of all, the environment in which it's being staged; then the audience, the nature of the audience, the quality of the audience.

I found, when I left, that there were others who felt the same way. We'd meet, they'd come and seek me out, we'd talk about the future. And I found that their depression and pessimism was every bit as acute as mine.

The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist.

I consider the process of gestation just as important as when you're actually sitting down putting words to the paper.

One, a mass movement from within, which, as you know, is constantly being put down brutally but which, again, regroups and moves forward as is happening right now as we are speaking.

But theater, because of its nature, both text, images, multimedia effects, has a wider base of communication with an audience. That's why I call it the most social of the various art forms.

My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.

I'm not one of those writers I learned about who get up in the morning, put a piece of paper in their typewriter machine and start writing. That I've never understood.

One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer.

Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will hardly ever be resolved. I can define in fact, can simplify the history of human society, the evolution of human society, as a contest between power and freedom.

There's something about the theater which makes my fingertips tingle.

Very conscious of the fact that an effort was being made to destroy my mind, because I was deprived of books, deprived of any means of writing, deprived of human companionship. You never know how much you need it until you're deprived of it.

Looking at faces of people, one gets the feeling there's a lot of work to be done.

But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That's all.

But when you're deprived of it for a lengthy period then you value human companionship. But you have to survive and so you devise all kinds of mental exercises and it's amazing.

And gradually they're beginning to recognize the fact that there's nothing more secure than a democratic, accountable, and participatory form of government. But it's sunk in only theoretically, it has not yet sunk in completely in practical terms.

The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail.

I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture.

See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome.

Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.

Well, first of all I'll say that I come alive best in theater.

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.

A tiger does not shout its tigritude, it acts.

A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice.

African film makers are scraping by on a mere pittance.

After the death of the sadistic dictator Gen. Sanni Abacha in 1998, Nigeria underwent a one-year transitional military administration headed by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who uncharacteristically bowed out precisely on the promised date for military disengagement. Did the military truly disengage, however? No.

All religions accept that there is something called 'criminality.' And criminality cannot be excused by religious fervour.

An excessive amount of my time is taken with political involvement. It's unavoidable; that's my temperament.

An idyllic period of my existence was when I had a den attached to my home... a writing den, and no one had access to that unless they had their own special visa, applied for weeks in advance.

Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.

Before you're a writer, you're a citizen, a human being, and therefore the weapons of the citizen are at your disposal to use or not use.

Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped.

Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress the truth.

Colonialism bred an innate arrogance, but when you undertake that sort of imperial adventure, that arrogance gives way to a feeling of accommodativeness. You take pride in your openness.

Each time I think I've created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space.

Education is lacking in most of those who pontificate.

England is the breeding ground of fundamentalist Muslims. Its social logic is to allow all religions to preach openly. But this is illogic, because none of the other religions preach apocalyptic violence. And yet England allows it.

For me, justice is the prime condition of humanity.

Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of a community can be, a hero always emerges. Although no one can dare claim that it is now a perfect state, and that no more work is needed, Rwanda has risen from the ashes as a model or truth and reconciliation.

History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice.

Human life has meaning only to that degree and as long as it is lived in the service of humanity.

I am a glutton for tranquility.