You either have an imaginative mind or you don't. All of my writing is God-given. I don't write my stories - they write themselves.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything.

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

Sometimes you just have to jump out the window and grow wings on the way down.

I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.

Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.

Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

I am counting on the private sector, because it is crucial to Senegal's future.

Hillary Clinton doesn't look presidential.

What greater pain could mortals have than this: To see their children dead before their eyes?

I'll do business with anyone, but I'll only go sailing with gentlemen.

I realized that my kisses with Dane had become a form of punctuation, the quotations or the hasty dash at the end of a conversation

The days have taught you not to trust happiness because it hurts when it deceives.

Good order and discipline in any army are to be depended upon more than courage alone.

I only write to understand myself better... I don't try to show how intelligent or how cultivated I am, I just try to share my soul. Sharing is part of life.