I think an artist, in my definition of that word, would not be someone who takes sides with the emperor against his powerless subjects. That's different from prescribing a way in which a writer should write.
Chinua Achebe
Related An artist, in my understanding of the word, should side with the people against the Emperor that opp... CHINUA ACHEBE I like the word 'fuck'. The word means what it means, but it also means whatever you need it to mean... LISA GLATT I think a writer's job is to provoke questions. I like to think that if someone's read a boo... DORIS LESSING Unsubscribe from should-a, would-a, could-a MICHAEL H. DANSBURY An artist chooses his subjects: that is the way he praises. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE My father believed in astrology. His astrologer had predicted that his daughter would become a write... TWINKLE KHANNA I do think I'm country, but your definition of that word might be different from my definition. ... SAM HUNT As a writer, I try to do different things, but I'm not going to become a darker artist or turn i... ELIZA DOOLITTLE And in another point of view, I think it is right that the address of a president should be on his o... ARTHUR CAYLEY I think that's what makes my music different from other artists in my lane is that I write every... MIKE POSNER My friend Harry Nilsson used to say the definition of an artist was someone who rode way ahead of th... ALBERT BROOKS If I were a capitalist I would not give my employees health insurance with no deductible, which I do... MICHAEL MOORE The word 'courage,' one of my favorite words, the root or the etymology of that word is '... HILL HARPER My poems always begin with a metaphor, but my way into the metaphor may be a word, an image, even a ... STEPHEN DOBYNS I believe that we're not alone. How can we be alone in an infinite universe? I'm using the w... ROSE LESLIE I don't write listening to music, and in a way it seems silly that any writer should have to exp... RACHEL KUSHNER I get the feeling that people from outside the world of contemporary art see it as deserving of mock... RACHEL KUSHNER I allegedly am an outsider writer, so I write from the perspective of somebody who doesn't compl... RABIH ALAMEDDINE I'm not an artist that makes singles, I'm an artist that makes albums, and it's a totall... RAEKWON William Maxwell's my favorite North American writer, I think. And an Irish writer who used to wr... ALICE MUNRO I don't buy into the idea that an Irish writer should write about Ireland, or a gay writer shoul... JOHN BOYNE I'm not the most talented writer in the world. I know that. But I also know that I'm discipl... DAVID B. COE As a writer, I always think about who my prototype actors are, in my brain. It's helpful, as a w... CARLTON CUSE I'm in love with lots of different things. I do love love, though. I don't think love should... ALEXA CHUNG I think that a percentage of contracts should be guaranteed. But [trailblazing] wasn't my thinking. ... MATT BIRK When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter ... LOU GEHRIG Constant work, constant writing and constant revision. The real writer learns nothing from life. He ... GORE VIDAL I think that people should learn about that. In most music, there's one way that you do somethin... BILLY HIGGINS Nowadays, you can be a fan of someone that's not an actor or artist. You can be a fan of someone... CAMERON DALLAS People expect me to be dark and gloomy, then write that I'm a jolly chap, and after all, that is... MICHAEL HANEKE I taped the autopsy photos from Marilyn Monroe's death to my lunch box in fifth grade, and I wou... KARIN SLAUGHTER Consumers use the 'S' word very easily. Their definition of spam is completely different from a mark... STEPHANIE MILLER I think I'm an American writer writing about Latin America, and I'm a Latin American writer ... DANIEL ALARCON I'm not the sort of writer who can walk into a party and take a look around, see who's sleep... E. L. DOCTOROW I often put any project I write in a different decade just to roll the thought around in my head. Th... JOEL EDGERTON I realized that day that blessings come in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. CRAIG GROESCHEL I'm an author who likes assignments, who needs suggestions, ideas I would never have thought of ... DAVID LAGERCRANTZ To note an artist's limitations is but to define his talent. A reporter can write equally well a... WILLA CATHER Being a woman writer, I would be deceiving myself if I said I write completely through the eye of a ... BUCHI EMECHETA What it takes is to actually write: not to think about it, not to imagine it, not to talk about it, ... LUANNE RICE I write. This is what I do. My job is to sit down with my vocabulary, select words, and decide what ... ALAN ZWEIBEL I'd love to be an artist that's multifaceted. At the moment, I am not. But wouldn't that... ANNE HATHAWAY If there's any message to my work, it is ultimately that it's OK to be different, that it... JOHNNY DEPP I became paralyzed as an artist with writer's block. DAVID GUTERSON I don't agree with boarding school. It's not something that I would do with my children, but... GABRIELLA WILDE It was not cool to be that fun, bubbly kid, so I would just go off on my own and sing and make up so... ELLE VARNER I think people appreciate a songwriter who shows different sides. The whole angst thing is cool, but... KATY PERRY There's something about the shape that a poem takes in my mind before I write it that has to do ... DANA GOODYEAR Why do I write? It's not that I want people to think I am smart, or even that I am a good writer... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER In 'There Will Be Blood,' my character was someone who was an actor himself almost. He had a... PAUL DANO I never learned to be a writer. I never took screenwriting courses. I never read anyone's script... DEREK CIANFRANCE . . . I do not see how it is possible that creatures in such different positions and with such diffe... WILLIAM JAMES Celebrity is a word that I find offensive. That's the c-word. I hate it. It means no discernible... BOB SAGET Stories about mental aberration and oddity only make sense in context. Just how do people live with ... MARK HADDON It's important, I think, for a writer of fiction to maintain an awareness of the pace and shape ... THOMAS PERRY Working with Bruno Mars would be really awesome. I'm such a fan of his, and I love that he's... BECKY G Even though I don't write about things that come from my life because I'm lucky, and I live ... JODI PICOULT If a writer doesn't do anything but give a new word to his language and, from there, maybe to ot... ILAN STAVANS I try not to write songs in which men glamorize their own need for approval from women. That's k... JOHN DARNIELLE How should an artist begin to do his work as an artist? I would insist that he begin his work as an ... FRANCIS A. SCHAEFFER I'm not a writer's writer. I'm not a craftsman. I could be, and that would be a one-book... JAMES PATTERSON The best thing anyone can do is be himself. Everyone was made different by God, and that's the w... ERNIE HARWELL I try to play characters who are different from myself, so I feel like this character is someone who... RYAN GOSLING When people ask me who I'd want to have dinner with, dead or alive, I always say, 'John Lenn... ALANIS MORISSETTE I wanted to be a writer, to write these stories that would make people see the world in a different ... JEFFREY SKOLL About my books, that's all that I think the public has, in its normal way, to know. My private l... PATRICK O'BRIAN In Paris, I met a young American person who immediately became the primary inspiration which awakene... GASTON LACHAISE Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays. KARL KRAUS Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays KARL KRAUS I always say that I'm an artist who works with pictures and words, so I think that the different... BARBARA KRUGER I was so lucky because what I did in 'Thor' was I built the character from the ground up - t... TOM HIDDLESTON I perceived that to express those impressions, to write that essential book, which is the only true ... MARCEL PROUST I don't travel and tell stories, because that's not the way these days. But I write my books... LOUIS L'AMOUR I think there's a karmic purpose that souls make before they decide to come into people's bo... BAT FOR LASHES A writer has an inescapable voice. I think it's inherent in the nature, and I think that we don&... HORTON FOOTE Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I think, because I'm an artist, part of my job is to be a barometer, an antenna. It's in the... JANE SIBERRY I have a handicap in that English is not my first language. So even though I'm a writer, I don... PATRICIA RIGGEN Is it not hard that even those who are with us should be against us - that a man's enemies, in s... JOHN WESLEY Although I still have a long way to go, I would like to become the pride of Asia. When another Asian... RAIN Actually if a writer needs a dictionary he should not write. He should have read the dictionary at l... ERNEST HEMINGWAY I think as an artist or a writer it's OK to want to control your own work. JAMES FREY I don't think an artist should always know why they gravitate toward something or someone. You a... MICKALENE THOMAS My dad was an editor and a writer, and that's really where I would have liked to have gone. But ... ANNE M. MULCAHY Fifty percent of all meaningful education takes place in the home. What do you share with your child... WALTER DEAN MYERS Most of the people who are engaged in the subjects that I look into are pretty interesting. Whether ... MARY ROACH I would think, as an artist, it's inescapable that you'll be affected by the world around yo... DAVE FILONI A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears. GERTRUDE STEIN My inspiration for writing is all the wonderful books that I read as a child and that I still read. ... PATRICIA MACLACHLAN That's my contribution - running a sound, healthy company that serves millions of customers well... JAMIE DIMON My theory is that everything an actor does, from the way he looks at his watch to the way he moves a... BERNARD SAHLINS If they're not temperamental, I don't want them. It's in the nature of a great artist to... SOL HUROK Stairs to climb are difficult it takes time and effort and going down is easies job... what do I mea... DEYTH BANGER To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way. BRAD PAISLEY One of my goals is to find an unsigned YouTube artist and feature them on my album. That's what ... CHARLIE PUTH Write a story a great writer would write. Because part of becoming an artist is pushing through all ... KAREN BENDER When I sing, it's different from when I speak in a very interesting way. I think that, when you&... AULI'I CRAVALHO If I had to think of what I would do different in my whole career, it's that I never would have ... JAYSON WILLIAMS Everybody who labels themselves a 'nerd' isn't some giant person locked in a cubbyhole w... JOSS WHEDON We are all shaped by where we grow up, though that shaping takes different forms. I don't think ... GUY GAVRIEL KAY
More Chinua Achebe
Many writers can't make a living. So to be able to teach how to write is valuable to them. But I... CHINUA ACHEBE A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself. CHINUA ACHEBE The damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair. CHINUA ACHEBE When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we se... CHINUA ACHEBE What a country needs to do is be fair to all its citizens - whether people are of a different ethnic... CHINUA ACHEBE One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised. CHINUA ACHEBE Americans, it seems to me, tend to protect their children from the harshness of life, in their inter... CHINUA ACHEBE I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life... CHINUA ACHEBE Oh, the most important thing about myself is that my life has been full of changes. Therefore, when ... CHINUA ACHEBE The most important thing about myself is that my life has been full of changes. Therefore, when I ob... CHINUA ACHEBE Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in a story, then you might begin to see yourself... CHINUA ACHEBE People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories. CHINUA ACHEBE Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. CHINUA ACHEBE Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with w... CHINUA ACHEBE While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity... CHINUA ACHEBE Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages... CHINUA ACHEBE Okonwko was well known throughout the nine villages and even
beyond. His fame rested on solid pers... CHINUA ACHEBE No man can deny that Chief the Honourable M.A. Nanga, M.P. was
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CHINUA ACHEBE They have not always elected the best leaders, particularly after a long period in which they have n... CHINUA ACHEBE People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories. CHINUA ACHEBE My parents were early converts to Christianity in my part of Nigeria. They were not just converts; m... CHINUA ACHEBE People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them ... CHINUA ACHEBE Each of my books is different. Deliberately... I wanted to create my society, my people, in their fu... CHINUA ACHEBE If you don't like someone's story, write your own. CHINUA ACHEBE I've had trouble now and again in Nigeria because I have spoken up about the mistreatment of fac... CHINUA ACHEBE My position is that serious and good art has always existed to help, to serve, humanity. Not to indi... CHINUA ACHEBE When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other la... CHINUA ACHEBE Nigeria has had a complicated colonial history. My work has examined that part of our story extensiv... CHINUA ACHEBE The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place. CHINUA ACHEBE There's no lack of writers writing novels in America, about America. Therefore, it seems to me i... CHINUA ACHEBE An artist, in my understanding of the word, should side with the people against the Emperor that opp... CHINUA ACHEBE Art is man's constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is g... CHINUA ACHEBE Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not d... CHINUA ACHEBE In such a regime, I say you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and ... CHINUA ACHEBE In such a regime, I say you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and ... CHINUA ACHEBE And so Mr. Brown came to be respected even by the clan, because he trod softly on its faith. CHINUA ACHEBE Ife onye metalu' ['what a man commits'] - a statement unclear and menacing in its very inconclusiven... CHINUA ACHEBE In the vocabulary of certain radical theorists contradictions are given the status of some deadly di... CHINUA ACHEBE ...she was sensitive enough and intelligent enough to understand, and her literary education could n... CHINUA ACHEBE It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is... CHINUA ACHEBE Charity … is the opium of the privileged; from the good citizen who habitually drops ten kobo from... CHINUA ACHEBE It is only the story...that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of ... CHINUA ACHEBE Procrastination is a lazy man's apology. CHINUA ACHEBE Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches! CHINUA ACHEBE Storytellers are a threat. 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CHINUA ACHEBE If you had been poor in your last life I would have asked you to be rich when you come again. But yo... CHINUA ACHEBE A snake was never called by its name at night, because it would hear. It was called a string. CHINUA ACHEBE Some people flinch when you talk about art in the context of the needs of society thinking you are i... CHINUA ACHEBE I tell my students, it's not difficult to identify with somebody like yourself, somebody next door w... CHINUA ACHEBE I don't care about age very much. CHINUA ACHEBE Nigera is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be. CHINUA ACHEBE I'm a practised writer now. But when I began, I had no idea what this was going to be. I just kn... CHINUA ACHEBE A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food... CHINUA ACHEBE