Chinua Achebe Quotes

I'm always looking for the potential mystery in everything; I can't imagine writing about anything else.

People inspire me. Curiosity inspires me. Mystery inspires me.

I think the foundation of everything in my life is wonder.

I write for the same reason I read: to find out what's going to happen.

Books were the window from which I looked out of a rather meager and decidedly narrow room onto a rich and wonderful universe. I loved the look and feel of books, even the smell... Libraries were treasure houses. I always entered them with a slight thrill of disbelief that all their endless riches were mine for the borrowing.

The unknown is always interesting.

The great thing about books is that you can end with a question mark.

Nothing much interested me other than playing with language and telling stories and doing something with the wonders of the world around me.

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

As long as there are things to wonder about, there are stories to be written about them. That makes me happy, because writing about things seems to be my thing.

Just about every science whiz can tell you how he or she took apart the TV or the radio when they were kids just to see how it worked. To see what the world was made of. Well, when I was a kid, I took apart fairy tales to see how they worked. To see what the world was made of.

I'm inspired by many different things. Often, I'm inspired by experiences I've had, books I've read, people I've met, stories I've heard.

And now, without having wearied my friends, I hope, with detailed scientific accounts, theories, or deductions, I will only say that I have endeavoured to tell just the story of the adventure itself.

I have always been intrigued by these lives I have never experienced.

When I start any book, I have no idea what I'm going to do.

And you know, when you take on something like this, you read a book like this, you know that it's going to be an adventure. That's part of what draws you to it.

Some people are fascinated by what they know, and some are fascinated by what they don't know. I'm just very interested in what's possible.

Reading is as much a part of life as any part, and it's life itself. And it allows us to live other lives that we might not have lived if we hadn't picked up those books.

Writers and travelers are mesmerized alike by knowing of their destinations.

I believe that hunger for a 'lost dimension' of experience is a natural yearning in all of us, and it doesn't go away just because we ignore it. It is evidenced among other places in the millions of children and adults who obsessively read the 'Harry Potter' books. It is said that fiction is where someone gets to tell the truth.

I like to read, even though it was really tough, because I could go anywhere in the world in a book, and I could have so many adventures in a book.

I always love novels that open up a subject to me - like raising a window to a beautiful, mysterious world outside.

Stories make you think and dream; books make you want to ask questions.

Before there can be wonders, there must be wonder.

Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?But am I talking too much? People are always telling me I do. Would you rather I didn't talk? If you say so I'll stop. I can STOP when I make up my mind to it, although it's difficult.