It is not the wolf that cries, but the goat. — Ferdinand Oyono

"The river does not go back to its spring."

"I was alleviated by this discovery. It executed something within me … I realized I ought to never be startled of the Commandant again."

"The Commandant trod on my fingers as he went out. I did not cry out. He did not turn round."

"Everybody told his own little African story to refute him and demonstrate that the African is a child or a fool."

"My happiness has neither day nor night. I didnt know about it, it just burst upon my whole being. I will sing to my flute, I will sing on the banks of rivers, but no words can express my happiness. I have held the hand of my queen. I felt that I was really alive. From now on my hand is sacred and must not know the lower regions of my body. My hand belongs to my queen whose hair is the colour of ebony, with eyes that are like the antelopes, whose skin is pink and white as ivory. A shudder ran through my body at the touch of her tiny moist hand, She trembled like a flower dancing in the breeze. My life was mingling with hers at the touch of her hand. Her smile is refreshing as a spring of water. Her look is as warm as a ray from the setting sun. It bathes you in a light that warms the depths of the heart. I am afraid... afraid of myself..."

"Life, he says, is like the chameleon, changing colour all the time."