From: Wade Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Thu 14 Nov 2002 - 18:45:48 GMT
A short excerpt from a long and most interesting interview-
- Wade
*****
http://www.conjunctions.com/archives/c17-ca1.htm
Chinua Achebe, An Interview
Bradford Morrow
MORROW: How do you feel about your work, looking at it as a whole?
ACHEBE: Well, it's an effort to tell my own story. And I'm satisfied
that at least I've broken through, been a pioneer, made a start. The
performance itself is never as successful as the thought. That, of
course, one has to live with. I'm sure this is true for every artist.
The Igbo people have a proverb that tells of the difference between the
vision and the achievement, and the achievement is never up to the
vision. What the eye sees can never be reached by the stone the hand
throws. The stone always falls short. I've learned to live with that. I
don't make too much about it. The language of the dream is always
superior to the language when you wake up and try to recapture the
dream. One need not waste one's life lamenting that. One must be
grateful for what one has achieved, and always try to do better, or at
least try not to rest.
MORROW: Well, I hope you dream long and tell many more stories, Chinua.
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