Véronique Tadjo Quotes

People do not necessarily need a sovereign, but they certainly need someone who embodies a higher idea of the nation.

African tradition of storytelling which gives me a great freedom of interpretation of our myths and legends, greatly inspires me.

Somewhere, a young man wallows in his suffering - his wound so deep he cannot draw a distinction between love and destruction. When he fights, he wounds his adversary like a fighter in search of victory.

For me, literature is the place for all concerns. It is the act of reading, the act of writing and the act of engaging in deep reflection.

I'm a trespasser in the Kingdom of Death. This is his private domain, his empire, where he rules with absolute power. I feel like an astronaut floating in space, a thousand miles from earth. The slightest tear in his spacesuit and he’s lost. The slightest tear in mine, just like him, I’m lost too.

With you I have rediscovered simple words,rediscovered the joy of evenings spent chat-ting, nights spent holding hands, hoping for acity that will not leave behind a bitter taste ofdefeat in the mornings. Maybe together, wewill make it. Please, do not reproach me for unleashing a storm upon this sleepy city, formislaying dreams made of rare pearls and fe-tish gold

You fly to another place. Home, to a big city ofstone. You leave as one does. One alwaysleaves. But you do not know if you will everreturn. I am leaving, I am leaving, will I everreturn? I am leaving you today. Yesterday, Ihad left you

I would say that although the monarchy has sometimes been challenged, it is nevertheless firmly rooted in the social fabric.

I check to see if there is any mail for me. Stamps from my coun-try. I pick up the newspaper. Here, there is a great dealof talk about South Africa

If you want to love ,Do so to the ends of the earth With no shortcuts Do so as the crow flies.

I think African Literature is doing very well. It’s got a lot of exposure on the international fair but what is interesting about it is that its looking at different themes, various themes and that makes it more complex and richer.

Pour libation, summon the gods,utter sacred words, assemble diviners and sorcerers recapture the present, make peace, return to the earth,the spell

There are many types of documents that influence us, that have their own lives. It is these documents that inform reality, and help us understand by indirect means what happened.

He has lodged himself in my heart and I do not know what to do with him. But I do not want to become a bad memory. I feel a richness pervading me. This love for you and for him. Who knows? It may rot with time… or flourish like a hibiscus in full bloom.

We spoke of conquest. We spoke of destruction. We spoke of boredom. And hetold me how he was finding life painful, of his inter-minable languor, and of his feeling of insatiable emp-tiness.