Top 982 Quotes & Sayings by Nigerian Authors - Page 15

My dad was a civil servant before he retired, and my mum worked, too. We could not always get three meals in a day; sometimes we'd struggle.

I don't really mind where I play - left, right, up front on my own, or with another striker. I'm just versatile like that, and I don't mind playing anywhere in attack.

I hope that what I am today is of positive benefit to other people.

Never lend people money you can't afford to give them as a gift.

It doesn't matter where you find yourself, you have to focus and concentrate.

Coach Amodu has coached the cream of Nigerian football players and I had the privilege of working with him albeit for a very short time during the preparations for the two-legged Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Egypt.

Our time here is magic! It's the only space you have to realize whatever it is that is beautiful, whatever is true, whatever is great, whatever is potential, whatever is rare, whatever is unique, in. It's the only space.

When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.

All these boundaries - Africa, Asia, Malaysia, America - are set by men. But you don't have to look at boundaries when you are looking at a man - at the character of a man. The question is: What do you stand for? Are you a follower, or are you a leader?

Denzel Washington is someone I look up to.

There is no dogma that the organ or harmonium can be used in church, but not the drum.

Umm... my favourite Wizkid tune of all time would be 'Don't Dull' 'cos I recorded the track in, like, 5 minutes. The beat was ready, we went into the studio and freestyled, and it was ready. The song became really, really big, so I think 'Don't Dull' is still my favourite.

As an actor, to play someone who's at war with himself, that's so interesting.

I don't know why, but football is my passion.

Actually, I'm for football. But I'm for intelligent football that enhances us rather than football that steals away who we are.

With each new book, the march of our national history takes a step forward. When one is present at a book launch, one is bearing witness to the birth of a new body of ideas, to the coming into being of another testimony of history.

It's more fun to write villains. They are more of a challenge, and I get a sick kind of pleasure out of delving into their minds. There's rarely emptiness, and there is almost always deep intelligence.

We are going to secure this country. We are going to manage it properly. We will continue to improve the situation, security, economy, and fighting corruption.

I would have gone anywhere for football.

The way people see Africa is mostly dark.

Coming up in this country, I've seen it so many times. When you see somebody rising you want to tear them down because you feel inadequate and you want to call it humble.

The relationship with my people, the Nigerian people, is very good. My relationship with the rulers has always been problematic.

Our diversity as a people united is also our potential to transform our large deposits of mineral resources and use same for national development.

The key to fashion is, you don't want to look like you're trying. You've gotta be natural.

I talked to a lot of people that switched careers. Not necessarily to acting, but switched jobs. The 'becoming a student again' is the thing that always kept coming up.

I can't see myself just endlessly singing the same songs over and over again.

Going onstage - that's my joy. You know like when you're in school and you're just waiting for the bell to go off so you can leave the class and go and play outside? That's me in life.

One of the hardest parts of this game, and what I don't think people understand, is the mental side of it. They think, 'Oh, he's a big, stronger guy.' But let me tell you, and I believe this without question: It's not always the biggest, strongest, meanest, toughest-looking who gets the job done.

Because I am not formally trained in the medical sciences, I can bring in new ideas to AIDS research and the cross-fertilization of ideas from different fields could be a valuable contribution to finding the cure for AIDS.

I'm the kind of person who always wants more. I was successful materially, but I know life is much more than worldly success. I saw all these blessings God had given me. The way to give thanks is obedience to God.

It's war for 90 minutes in the Manchester Derby. You cannot give anything less than 100 percent concentration.

I had a lot of different reasons for writing the book, but at its core was the desire to write for black teenage girls growing up reading books they were absent from. That was my experience as a child. 'Children of Blood and Bone' is a chance to address that. To say you are seen.

I grew up on an estate in Manchester and people I've known from school have died in gang trouble and I always thought, if I'd been on a different estate at a different time, it could have been me.

I moved around a lot when I was a child; two of the houses I grew up in have totally disappeared. One was burnt in a riot, and the other was pulled down.

What would ultimately de-escalate the challenges of society would be for people to get educated, especially for more women to be educated because when more women are educated, they invest much more of their time and income in ensuring that the next generation would perform even more than they have done.

I felt Nigeria didn't have to succumb to the image of being a corrupt country; we didn't have to let the economy stagnate.

My mum was very supportive, and I don't really understand why when I think of her humble beginnings. She grew up in one room with my grandma, my grand-dad and her siblings and a fire-pit outside to cook on. Now she's a homeowner in Manchester and has a business.

Initially I probably didn't even call it acting, but dressing up or something. As a kid I think you fully imagine the world in which you want to inhabit, so you put some clothes on and just kind of freely imagine this world, and it's a total imaginary world.

I don't want to be a big star. I just want to get my message across.

People in Nigeria weren't happy that I went to Qatar. They said 'why did you go there of all places?' They missed watching me on television but sometimes you have to think about yourself and your future as well.

When I do things, I do things honestly.

In my perfect world, we'd have one black girl fantasy book every month. We need them, and we need fantasy stories about black boys as well.

Having a sweet, wide-eyed, awkward character is more charming and allows for more range. If you come from anger, you're going to reach a ceiling very quickly.

My search is always to find ways to chronicle, to share and to document stories about people, just everyday people. Stories that offer transformation, that lean into transcendence, but that are never sentimental, that never look away from the darkest things about us.

The number one thing that kills businesses in Africa is power - or the lack of power.

The Igbo used to say that they built their own gods. They would come together as a community, and they would express a wish. And their wish would then be brought to a priest, who would find a ritual object, and the appropriate sacrifices would be made, and the shrine would be built for the god.

If you don't have ambition, you shouldn't be alive.

If I am not above the law, nobody in this country can then claim to be above the law.

I look a lot like my father and his mother.

In particular I want to talk about natural black hair, and how it's not just hair. I mean, I'm interested in hair in sort of a very aesthetic way, just the beauty of hair, but also in a political way: what it says, what it means.

China, frankly, can be an opportunity for Africa based on the huge infrastructure deficit on the continent, but what needs to happen is that governments and citizens have to build internal ownership of the need of good governance, transparency, accountability, for respect for the environment.

In Nigeria, you have to have sports channels to watch that but not everyone can afford it. My parents couldn't afford that so you have to pay a viewing centre to watch that.

'Home' may be the best part and best movie I've ever had. I loved it.

The people who were supposed to invest in refineries, who understand the market, are benefiting from there being no refineries because of the fuel import business.

When I was a kid, my aunt snuck us into see 'Boyz n the Hood.'

The content of Saul Leiter's photographs arrives on a sort of delay: it takes a moment after the first glance to know what the picture is about. You don't so much see the image as let it dissolve into your consciousness, like a tablet in a glass of water.

Our dream is to build a hospital in Nigeria and four other countries in Africa.

The rhythm, the sounds, the tonality, the chord sequences, the individual effect of each instrument and each section of the band - I'm talking about a whole continent in my music.

Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer space.

Nigeria has a lot of Man City fans, and they're going to have more every time I go home.