Uwem Quotes & Sayings

Maybe if we can find time to hug and cherish our families and the people around us, child suicide or college suicide wouldn't be rampant. — Uwem Akpan

When I was just starting out, I met Cartier-Bresson. He wasn't young in age but, in his mind, he was the youngest person I'd ever met. He told me it was necessary to trust my instincts, be inside my work, and set aside my ego. In the end, my photography turned out very different to his, but I believe we were coming from the same place. — Sebastiao Salgado

I think fiction allows us to sit for a while with people we would rather not meet. — Uwem Akpan

Though people are more important than money, I'm not convinced these large sums of money paid out to victims is the best. Listening to the some of the victims, I think we could have avoided a lot of this if the Church had humbly apologized to them, but we tried to bully some of them. I pray the victims are healed. — Uwem Akpan

For me, as I've said many times, the story is not research. The story is how the characters relate with each other and with the environment ... I try to apply my imagination to what could have happened and how a little child could have viewed and processed the event ... — Uwem Akpan

I'm happy if my book makes you want to kiss your family ... if we can reconcile with each other no matter where we are on the globe. — Uwem Akpan

I don't believe in the art-for-art's-sake philosophy. With the raw material before me and the gifts within me, I did my best to celebrate the voices and intelligence and sweetness and dreams of the children in spite of their chaotic, outer worlds ... — Uwem Akpan

I believe that Jesus was both priest and poet. Imagine those powerful parables! My experience as a priest tells me it's not possible to reach the hearts of the congregants without a bit of poetry and storytelling. — Uwem Akpan

I believe artists should be able to step into other people's situations, contexts and cultures and work from there. If artists don't have that freedom, then, as someone has said, are we all writing our autobiographies? — Uwem Akpan

He turned back, and there was an odd light in his eyes. "Did I ever tell you that I can't live without you?" he said.
"No," she said. "You can tell me about it when we survive." She could barely breathe, death was eating its way toward her, and she wanted to laugh out loud with the joy of it. — Anne Stuart

What I find more remarkable, however, is how readily many people in our society believe outlandish and unsubstantiated urban myths and conspiracies (Pop Rocks and Coke, JFK assassination, AIDS is man-made, etc.), yet disregard thousands of personal and consistent testimonies of miracles and near-death experiences from people throughout all cultures and religions. — Mary C. Neal

I've seen far too many Christians who are more than willing to travel halfway around the world to volunteer for a week in an orphanage, but who cannot bring themselves to take the personal risk of sharing Jesus with the co-worker who sits day after day in the cubicle right next to them. — Lee Strobel

A victory over others is a Pyrrhic victory; however, a victory over himself is the only truth. — Kristian Goldmund Aumann

After the phone call from The New Yorker, I walked more than a mile to church to thank God. But then I told God I would talk to Him another time and darted home. — Uwem Akpan

I wonder: when a Jehovah's Witness dies and goes to Heaven, does God hide behind the door and pretend He's not home? — Brian Celio

I think there is only one way to write fiction - alone, in a room, without interruption or any distraction. — Paul Theroux

I'd say my religious life has shaped my worldview; my writing, I'd say too, is an extension of the pulpit ... it reaches folks who don't care for organized religion in a different way. — Uwem Akpan

Listen, dis foreign TV channels dey spoil de image of our country. Dese white stations dey make billions of dollars to sell your war and blood to de world ... We no bad like dis. OK, why dem no dey show corpses of deir white people during crisis for TV? Abi, people no dey kill for America or Europe?"
"You dey speak grammar!" someone shouted. "Wetin concern us wid America and Europe? Abeg, give us cable TV."
"Remove dis toilet pictures!" said another.
"So our barracks be toilet now?" the police answered. "What an insult!"
"You na mad mad police," Monica said.
"Ok, cable TV no be for free anymore!" the police said.
"But it's our pictures we are watching on cable TV," Madam Aniema said. "Why should we pay you to see ourselves and our people?"
The police answered, "Because government dey complain say cable TV dey misrepresent dis religious crisis. — Uwem Akpan

People think they want pleasure, recognition, popularity, status, and power, but the pursuit of these things leads to emptiness, delusion, and foolishness. God — Kenneth D. Boa

Have fun. I don't kid myself. Life is very fragile, and success doesn't change that. If anything, success makes it more fragile. Anything can change, without warning, and that's why I try not to take any of what's happened too seriously. — Donald Trump

I retired from public Business from a thorough Conviction that it was not in my Power to do any Good, and very much disgusted with Measures, which appeared to me inconsistent with common Policy and Justice. — George Mason

I'd love to open up sessions at a Boys and Girls Club or something where kids can learn nutrition and how to exercise in a fun way. Especially for young guys. I'd love to be an inspiration. — James Maslow

Worship is transcendent wonder. — Thomas Carlyle

I always felt my writing could benefit from the attention of established writers. I knew my work could grow and be better. — Uwem Akpan

Jealousy makes people do and say stupid things. — Richelle Mead

I have been very afraid of writing about other cultures and countries. I've been worried about getting the research wrong. I ask a lot of questions. I try to visit the area. If I'm not able to do that, I search out people from that country who live elsewhere and ask questions. — Uwem Akpan

Great drama is great questions or it is nothing but technique. I could not imagine a theater worth my time that did not want to change the world. — Arthur Miller

One day, all your worries will set like the sun does and deserved happiness will come gushing like waves at the beach do. All you need to make sure id that your trips to beach never end. — Jasleen Kaur Gumber