15 quotes
On the day of death, there is no medicine.
Burning Grass (1962)
Night might convert the old devil into a fiend.
Burning Grass (1962)
He who waits will see what is in the grass.
Burning Grass (1962)
How the city attracts all types and how the unwary must suffer from ignorance of its ways.
A maiden is one of those things a man must not trust. By Allah, it is!
Burning Grass (1962)
....I was born sixty-five years ago, at a time when man was man, and women were won by those who deserved them.
The Passport of Mallam Ilia (1960)
I say there has been a war. If a fish comes out of the water and says the crocodile has one eye, who has been there with him?
Burning Grass (1962)
You pay twenty head of cattle for a maiden because you are excited. Then when your head is cool, you begin to say "If I had known!
Burning Grass (1962)
Not a war. But then, it was a war. When the forest burns do the locusts stop to say goodbye?
Burning Grass (1962)
He looked out of the window, as if the interview gave him some pain, and for a moment I studied him silently.
The Passport of Mallam Ilia (1960)
He looked over his shoulder, like a thief entering a strong room, and his voice sank low.
The Passport of Mallam Ilia (1960)
His motto had become money, money, money. This was the way people of the city realized themselves.
People of the City (1954)
But now things are different. Yes, things are gradually passing into African hands. Soon al the power will be in our hands. It's worth fighting for.
People of the City (1954)
the cry of someone in great pain, a person who immediate help would mean everything.
The Passport of Mallam Ilia (1960)
Literature has the task of molding character. It has the task of glorifying Courage, focusing ambition, directing, and giving life. These are the things that literature can do, and the biggest task of all that literature has is that the writer, in whatever sense, is a teacher. He is a man who explores new avenues of life, and therefore he is a guide into these new avenues.
Cyprian Ekwensi On Négritude and the Responsibility of African Writers (1969)