Véronique Tadjo Quotes

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

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.

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

You should listen to those whose voices remain unheard although the wisdom they carry is shaped by their closeness to the earth. No refined language but the pace of life at a gallop refashioned outmoded images, well-worn phrases, and ways of thinking that are out of date.

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.

We were here to last. We were here to spread our shade over the remotest lands. We were here so our foliage would murmur the secrets of the four corners of the world. But human beings have destroyed our hopes. No matter where in the world they are, they wage war on the forest. Our trunks crash to the ground with a sound like thunder. Our naked roots mourn the end of our dreams. You cannot destroy the forest without spilling blood.

It is a matter of infrastructure and superstructure. The problem must be analyzed in the specific context of the country. A lot of progress has been made. We are no longer the way we used to be.

...love is the colour of hope. Bitter today, sweet tomorrow. You should not throw away your wealth of tenderness and let the honey-filled caresses dry up. Do not be wicked just to prove who you are, just to expose your wounds to the skies.

The challenge is that sometimes if you are a writer you might get completely enmeshed. People want you to take sides. When there is a problem they always want you to take sides. I don’t really like it.

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.

It's only when we work together that we can defeat such threats to humanity. So I think that I would really, really like to see more solidarity within each country and across countries.

We live in a world where we can tell neither head nor tail. We live in a world that jeers at you and proffers insults, an incestuous world that robs you of hope.

Humans today think they can do whatever they like. They fancy themselves as masters, as architects of nature.

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

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.