Chinua Achebe Quotes

With a pencil and paper, I could revise the world.

Writing reminds you that you're never alone. Writing and reading is to be optimistic.

Silence is our enemy, and sound is our weapon.

He was a writer and words were his weapons.

You can't shoot an idea.

In the end, we're just showmen. But, I think that it's an important factor. Not to be anything else but clear about that - for me, creativity is an important part of our evolution. Art has probably done more good for the world than war. But they're equally powerful. They both create revolutions.

Writing is one way to achieve enchantment.

Writing is the painting of the voice.

When I was young, when I started to write, we were totally convinced that literature was a kind of weapon.

There is a weapon we can fight with. That is the weapon of political action.

Music is the biggest tool of revolution - the best way to reach out to the youth and involve them. If you can't contribute to the world with your art, I don't see the meaning of life.

Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change - it can not only move us, it makes us move.

Movies have an enormous power to open the mind and the heart and everything.

Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.

Whenever somebody tells me they want me to stop singing, I'm gone.

There’s a lot of power in a little paint.

Comedy as dissent or any art form as dissent is going to be our last safety valve.

A good poem is a contribution to reality.

The arts are what makes life worth living. You've got food, you've got shelter, yeah. But the things that make you laugh, make you cry, make you connect - make you love are communicated through the arts. They aren't extras.

Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge - it is as immortal as the heart of man.

When you think intensely and beautifully, something happens. That something is called poetry. If you think that way and speak at the same time, poetry gets in your mouth. If people hear you, it gets in their ears. If you think that way and write at the same time, then poetry gets written. But poetry exists in any case. The question is only: are you going to take part, and if so, how?

Literature is the voice of the human heart.

The only weapon I've got is comedy

poetry is the breath and finer spirit of knowledge

People forget that art is not just a piece of entertainment. It is the place where we collectively declare our values and then act on them. That's one of the most powerful things we have as a community: our culture and our art. And it's the intersection between life and how people deal with life. It's the most important thing we do.