multibeautiful

For the last post of this impromptu literary fiction fest, I give you Nigerian writer and professor Chinua Achebe, author of the magnificent Things Fall Apart.

"To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them."

"We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n'ani ji onwe ya: "He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down." --from The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays



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Pakistani novelist. Her most recent book Burnt Shadows effortlessly spans continents, cultures and generations. It includes the most subtle and sensitive portrayals of moderate Muslim life and mixed-race marriage that I’ve ever encountered. It is beautiful and captivating, and if I had my way, everyone would read it.

“War is like disease. Until you’ve had it you don’t know it. But no. That’s a bad comparison. At least with disease everyone thinks it might happen to them one day. You have a pain here, swelling there, a cold which stays and stays. You start to think maybe this is something really bad. But war — countries like yours they always fight wars, but always somewhere else. It’s why you fight more wars than anyone else; because you understand war least of all.” -- from Burnt Shadows


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