"Okeke was trying hard not to think of his two grandsons. But he knew he was now fighting a losing battle. He tried to hum a favourite hymn but the pattering of large rain drops on the roof broke up the tune. His mind immediately returned to the children. How could he shut his door against them? By a curious mental process he imagined them standing, sad and forsaken, under the harsh angry weather—shut out from his house. That night he hardly slept, from remorse—and a vague fear that he might die without making it up to them."

"The story eventually got to the little village in the heart of the Ibo country that Nnaemeka and his young wife were a most happy couple. But his father was one of the few people who knew nothing about this. He always displayed so much temper whenever his son’s name was mentioned that everyone avoided it in his presence. By a tremendous effort of will he had succeeded in pushing his son to the back of his mind. The strain had nearly killed him but he had persevered, and won."

"Nnaemeka, for his own part, was very deeply affected by his father’s grief. But he kept hoping that it would pass away. If it had occurred to him that never in the history of his people had a man married a woman who spoke a different tongue, he might have been less optimistic."

"Nene Atang from Calabar. She is the only girl I can marry.” This was a very rash reply and Nnaemeka expected the storm to burst. But it did not. His father merely walked away into his room. This was most unexpected and perplexed Nnaemeka. His father’s silence was infinitely more menacing than a flood of threatening speech. That night the old man did not eat."

"“I don’t love her."“Nobody said you did. Why should you?” he asked.“Marriage today is different…”“Look here, my son,” interrupted his father, “nothing is different. What one looks for in a wife are a good character and a Christian background.”Nnaemeka saw there was no hope along the present line of argument."

"As Nnaemeka walked home that evening he turned over in his mind the different ways of overcoming his father’s opposition, especially now that he had gone and found a girl for him. He had thought of showing his letter to Nene but decided on second thoughts not to, at least for the moment."

"Yes. They are most unhappy if the engagement is not arranged by them. In our case it’s worse—you are not even an Ibo.This was said so seriously and so bluntly that Nene could not find speech immediately. In the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city it had always seemed to her something of a joke that a person’s tribe could determine whom he married."

"What one looks for in a wife are a good character and a Christian background."

"‘I can’t—we must—I mean it is impossible for me to marry Nweke’s daughter.’ ‘Impossible. Why?’ asked his father. ‘I don’t love her.’ ‘Nobody said you did. Why should you?’"

"In the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city it had always seemed to her something of a joke that a person’s tribe could determine who he married."

"obstinately ahead of his more superstitious neighbors in these matters"

"that women supply with success to recapture their husbands’ straying affection"

"calls for medicine"

"the first rain in the year"

"deeply affected by his father’s grief"

"it is impossible for [him] to marry Nweke’s daughter"

"found a girl who will suit [him] admirably"

"For an African writing in English is not without its serious setbacks. He often finds himself describing situations or modes of thought which have no direct equivalent in the English way of life. Caught in that situation he can do one of two things. He can try and contain what he wants to say within the limits of conventional English or he can try to push back those limits to accommodate his ideas … I submit that those who can do the work of extending the frontiers of English so as to accommodate African thought-patterns must do it through their mastery of English and not out of innocence."

"The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place."

"Nonsense, we run a bus. The seats face where you are going"

"You say you get pride and you are still a conductor on a bolekaja."

"It's a foolish elder who becomes a creditor, since he must wait until the other world, or outlive his debtors."

"If the young sapling bends, the old twig if it resists the wind, can only break."

"When a squirrel seeks sanctuary up the iroko tree the hunter's chase is ended."

"Age has shrunk the tortoise and the shell is full of air pockets."

"When the dog hides a bone does he not throw up sand?"

"The ostrich also sports plumes but I've yet to see that wise bird leave the ground."

"We lift the King's umbrella higher than men but it never pushes the sun in the face."

"Only a foolish child lets a father prostrate to him."

"It is a mindless clown who dispenses thanks as a fowl scatters meal not caring where it falls."

"It was our fathers who said, not I - a crown is a burden when the king visits his favourite's chambers. When the king's wrapper falls off in audience, wise men know he wants to be left alone."

"The nude shanks of a king is not a sight for children - it will blind them."

"A shilling's vegetable must appease a halfpenny spice."

"A King does not become a menial just because he puts down his crown to eat."

"The descendants of our great forebears...let them symbolize all that is noble in our nation.""

"The guests we were sent are slaves and lackeys. They have only come to undermine our strength. To preach to us how ignoble we are."

"When your businessmen ruin the lesser ones, do you go crying to them?""

"Doesn't she look like the type that would drive men to madness and self-destruction?"

"Recognition is the curse I carry with me."

""I have a particular aversion to being mauled by women"

"Why don't you confess it? You are the type who would rather die in your bed."

"Adenebi becomes defensive and says, "Have you no feeling for those who died?""

"Aroni has taken control. That is when the guilty become afraid."

"These rites of the dead. I do not know why you take them on,""

"This whole family business sickens me. Let everybody lead their own lives,""

"The world is big, but the dead are bigger"

"When you see a man hurrying, he has got a load on his back. Do you think I live emptily that I will take another's cause for pay or mercy?"

"Will you take my case?"

"I see we’ve got another of the good old days. Obaneji [on the contrary]."