Véronique Tadjo Quotes

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.

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.

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.

It is definitely a century that hangs its head in shame. Our elders have been called impotent, and we are accused of being ‘limp’…

As the dream of my country, which obsesses me all the time. I carry it with me all day. At night, it lies next to me, making love to me.

I think of my country, far away, and my eyes open beyond space.

Here there are no griots, only poets. You think that you are leading an extraordinary life and that people see you as you would like them to. You adorn yourself with your writing. It becomes your identity, your bread and butter, and your reason for living. You begin to believe in what people say. You become locked up in your creation, become submerged in words, and sentences suffocate you in the solitude of your retreat. They make you forget the blood and the dust.

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

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language but the pace of life at a gallop refashioned outmoded images, well-worn phrases, and ways of thinking that are out of date.

We must perform cleansing rites. Make the necessary sacrifices. We must replant our huge trees that have been uprooted, replenish our sacred forests that have been decimated.

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.

You need to look at the place without emotion to be rational. What does this place have to offer? What does the other place have?.

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.

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

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.