"You can't go on all the time being whatever's necessary. You've got to have some conviction, and I'm convinced I don't want to be anyone's underdog. It's not right for anyone to be that. But once you get used to it, well, it just seems natural and you just carry on. And that's the end of you. You're trapped"

"Can you cook books and feed them to your husband? Stay at home with your mother. Learn to cook and clean. Grow vegetables"

"And these days it is worse, with the poverty of blackness on one side and the weight of womanhood on the other. Aiwa! What will help you, my child, is to learn to carry your burdens with strength"

"Quietly, unobtrusively and extremely fitfully, something in my mind began to assert itself, to question things and refuse to be brainwashed, bringing me to this time when I can set down this story. It was a long and painful process for me, that process of expansion"

"We see him being enmeshed in a web he himself makes; he gets to a point of recognition and reversal, but too late. He enters the shrine and he is driven by a boa. He has to and actually commits suicide. His mother, who actually committed the crime, does the same"

"You have the power, but I fear that the sense behind The power is absent."

"Then let me hear who must make the confession, or shut your mouth"

"It is often said that each bubble in a cooking pot of soup fights so hard for supremacy that none listens to the cry of the pot itself; so when the pot burns, all the bubbles perish"

"True, your majesty, but the Oracle has never been known to err and never has any person other than Omu consulted the Oracle for the king. That the king exiled the Omu and chose someone else who will tell him what he wants to hear does not alter the words of the Oracle. She speaks only once, and when she speaks it stays. It is our duty to do what she bids"

"No, your highness, I must deliver Mkpitime’s message to you. That you hate to receive a third warning to postpone the Peace Week until the crime in the royal family has been revealed is not my concern. I was sent by you to consult the Oracle and I must deliver it"

"Friendship has splendors that love knows not. It grows stronger when crossed, whereas obstacles kill love. Friendship resists time, which wearies and severs couples. It has heights unknown to love."

"The flavour of life is love. The salt of life is also love."

"The word 'happiness' does indeed have meaning, doesn't it? I shall go out in search of it."

"A nervous breakdown waits around the corner for anyone who lets himself wallow in bitterness. Little by little, it takes over your whole being."

"I am stripping myself of your love, of your name. Clothed in my dignity, the only worthy garment, I go my way."

"Books saved you. Having become your refuge, they sustained you. The power of books, this marvelous invention of astute human intelligence. Various signs associated with sound: different sounds that form the word. Juxtaposition of words from which springs the idea, Thought, History, Science, Life. Sole instrument of interrelationships and of culture, unparalleled means of giving and receiving. Books knit generations together in the same continuing effort that leads to progress. They enabled you to better yourself. What society refused you, they granted"

"Each life has its share of heroism, an obscure heroism, born of abdication, of renunciation and acceptance under the merciless whip of fate."

"Clothed in my dignity, the only worthy garment, I go my way."

"The most humble of huts is pleasing when it is clean; the most luxurious setting offers no attraction if it is covered in dust."

"One does not fix appointments with fate. Fate grasps whom it wants, when it wants."

"Again, I think: heart massage, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, ridiculous weapons against the divine will."

"Standing upright, her eyes meeting my disapproving look, she mutters between teeth reddened by cola nuts: 'Lady, death is just as beautiful as life has been' ["

"Each profession, intellectual or manual, deserves consideration, whether it requires painful physical or manual dexterity, wide knowledge or the patience of an ant. Ours, like that of the doctor, does not allow for any mistake. You don't joke with life, and life is both body and mind. To warp a soul is as much a sacrilege as murder."

"You don't burn the tree which bears the fruit."

"The play of destiny remains impenetrable. The cowries that a female neighbour throws on a fan in front of me do not fill me with optimism, neither when they remain face upwards, showing the black hollow that signifies laughter, nor when the grouping of their whites seem to say that 'the man in the double trousers' is coming towards me."

"A woman is like a ball; once a ball is thrown, no one can predict where it will bounce. You have no control over where it rolls, and even less over who gets it. Often it is grabbed by an unexpected hand ..."

"Whereas a woman draws from the passing years the force of her devotion, despite the ageing of her companion, a man, on the other hand, restricts his field of tenderness. His egoistic eye looks over his partner's shoulder. He compares what he had with what he no long has, what he has with what he could have."

"To overcome distress when it sits upon you demands strong will. When one thinks that with each passing second one's life is shortened, one must profit intensely from this second; it is the sum of all the lost or harvested seconds that makes for a wasted or a successful life. Brace oneself to check despair and get it into proportion! A nervous breakdown waits around the corner for anyone who lets himself wallow in distress. Little by little, it takes over your whole being."

"Aggression and condescension in a woman arouse contempt and hatred for her husband. If she is gracious, even without appealing to any ideology, she can summon support for any action. In a word, a man's success depends on feminine support."

"You don't fell the tree whose shade protects you. You water it. You watch over it."

"You can feed your stomach as well as you please; it will still provide for itself without your knowing. ["

"One is a mother to lighten the darkness. One is a mother to shield when lightning streaks the night, when thunder shakes the earth, when mud bogs one down. One is a mother in order to love without beginning or end."

"The success of the family is born of a couple's harmony, as the harmony of multiple instruments creates a pleasant symphony."

"“The bully only gets away with it because others let him. They’ll have to lock me up before they shut me up.”"

"“With Uncle Dele missing, they were now completely and utterly alone. If anyone asked where they came from and what they were doing, whatever should they say?”"

"Not a speck, not a stain on her gray school skirt and blue blouse to show what terrible thing had happened…If only by putting on something fresh and new, they could begin the day again.""

"(chapter 1)"

"A few seconds, that is all. Later, it will always seem much longer."

"guns save us from the fear that all life is within us"

"has been composed facing east into the rising sun and in a mood of poignant regret (poindre, to pierce) that I am rooted in the evening lands."

"The bushveld is full of stories, stories without end. You can't stop them. They come out of the trees, they come out of the rocks, they come out of the earth."

"I am not a hunter, I am a story-teller. It's not my job to kill, it's my job to tell stories."

"You can't live with your past, you can't live without it. That's the paradox of memory."

"The Boers are a strange people. They are afraid of the wilderness, yet they live in it. They are afraid of the black people, yet they need them. They are afraid of the future, yet they are always looking forward."

"The only way to escape from your past is to become someone else. But who can you become? What other selves are there?"

"The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there."

"A book review serves two major functions—descriptive and evaluative. It first of all can indicate to the some general idea of the contents and it can offer a critique, an evaluation of merit. The two functions are rather distinct and yet they belong together."

"The book review is a specific and applied form of , and is distinguished in several ways from criticism in general. In the first place, whereas criticism in general may be concerned with an author's entire work, or with that of a group of writers or of a period, the review usually is limited to a single book. While, of course, it may compare the book with others by the same author or by other writers, its interest is centered in the single work. Another difference is this: while criticism in general often takes for granted that the reader is more or less familiar with the authors and books being discussed, the review takes less for granted. One reason for this that readers of book reviews—especially reviews that appear in newspapers—are likely to be less informed and less sophisticated than readers of criticism in general."

"Book reviewing can be a delightful writing experience for those who read quickly, are able to formulate an analysis easily, and enjoy crafting essays. Writing about a book gives us the opportunity to clarify, organize, and analyse the swirling impressions and ideas that are generated from our reading. When we evaluate a book, we sharpen our critical skills, learning about our identity as readers and discovering strategies for conveying our responses to other readers."