“Each time I think I've created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space.”

“I found, when I left, that there were others who felt the same way. We'd meet, they'd come and seek me out, we'd talk about the future. And I found that their depression and pessimism was every bit as acute as mine.”

“The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.”

“I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society.”

“There is only one home to the life of a river-mussel; there is only one home to the life of a tortoise; there is only one shell to the soul of man: there is only one world to the spirit of our race. If that world leaves its course and smashes on boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter?”

“I began writing early - very, very early... I was already writing short stories for the radio and selling poems to poetry and art festivals; I was involved in school plays; I wrote essays, so there was no definite moment when I said, 'Now I'm a writer.' I've always been a writer.”

“I like my peace and quiet whenever I can grab it.”

“And gradually they're beginning to recognize the fact that there's nothing more secure than a democratic, accountable, and participatory form of government. But it's sunk in only theoretically, it has not yet sunk in completely in practical terms.”

“The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular, have been playing for time in order to conclude its mission of ethnic cleansing in the Sudan.”

“I take friendship very seriously.”

“Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.”