Chinua Achebe: The Art of Fiction (The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. 3)
Chinua Achebe
Advice to those with literary promise from Chinua Achebe:
I don't get the deluge of manuscripts that I would be getting in Nigeria. But some do manage to find me. This is something I understand, because a budding writer wants to be encouraged. But I believe myself that a good writer doesn't really need to be told anything except to keep at it. Just think of the work you've set yourself to do, and do it as well as you can. Once you have really done all you can, then you can show it to people. But I find this is increasingly not the case with the younger people. They do a first draft and want somebody to finish it off for them with good advice. So I just maneuver myself out of this. I say, Keep at it. I grew up recognizing that there was nobody to give me any advice and that you do your best and if it's not good enough, someday you will come to terms with that. I don't want to be the one to tell somebody, You will not make it, even though I know that the majority of those who come to me with their manuscripts are not really good enough. But you don't ever want to say that to a young person, You can't, or, You are no good. Some people might be able to do it, but I don't think I am a policeman for literature. So I tell them, Sweat it out, do your best. Don't publish it yourself -- this is a tendency that is becoming more and more common in Nigeria. You go and find someone -- a friend -- to print your book.
Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic Chinua Achebe is a professor at Brown University. His first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958) is part of the cannon of modern African literature. Other works include Anthills of the Savannahs (1987), Another Africa (1998), and Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975). His interview with The Paris Review was published in 1994.
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