And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.

After the death of the sadistic dictator Gen. Sanni Abacha in 1998, Nigeria underwent a one-year transitional military administration headed by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who uncharacteristically bowed out precisely on the promised date for military disengagement. Did the military truly disengage, however? No.

Military dictatorship, you can focus on it, you can fight it directly. It's a band of power-driven people.

Colonialism bred an innate arrogance, but when you undertake that sort of imperial adventure, that arrogance gives way to a feeling of accommodativeness. You take pride in your openness.

The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.

Dogme is like leading a religious life, in that you are freeing yourself from making certain choices. It makes life easier.

My mom said, 'Don't get married. You're too young. Go out there and experience what life has to offer.' And I did.

I was pushing for a career in poetry and of course the received wisdom was that you would never make a living at it.