"To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization."

"Decolonization is always a violent phenomenon."

"Imperialism leaves behind it, here and there, little clusters of Europeans who, living in an unreal way, begin to feel the need of a fictive superstructure which conceals their alienation."

"The oppressor makes the oppressed."

"The settler is right when he speaks of knowing ‘them’ well. For it is the settler who has brought the native into existence and who perpetuates his existence."