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Very conscious of the fact that an effort was being made to destroy my mind, because I was deprived of books, deprived of any means of writing, deprived of human companionship. You never know how much you need it until you’re deprived of it.

Wole Soyinka

I think that feeling that if one believed absolutely in any cause, then one must have the confidence, the self-certainty, to go through with that particular course of action.
WOLE SOYINKA

Absolute Believe Cause Certainty Confidence Feel Must One Self Think Through
It’s the place to begin, always — to return to home, literally.
WOLE SOYINKA

Always Begin Home Literally Place Return
Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others.
WOLE SOYINKA

Appear Human Other Shudder Sometimes Think Winter
I don’t really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.
WOLE SOYINKA

Accident Came Consider Myself Novelist Purely Really
Intolerance has always been with us, you know. The moment you have ideology, we have intolerance, whether it’s the secular ideology or, you know ideocratic ideology, which always brings with it some kind of intolerance.
WOLE SOYINKA

Always Been Ideology Intolerance Moment Secular Wether
As a global citizen, I sometimes feel like denying my identity.
WOLE SOYINKA

Citizen Deny Feel Global Identity Sometimes
There’s a lot of insincerity about the actions of our legislators; they create distractions – like this anti-gay law you alluded to – and try to mobilise, to exacerbate people’s emotions. Until the legislators started making laws, people minded, generally, their own business.
WOLE SOYINKA

Action Anti Attitude Create Distraction Gay Insincerity Legislator Like Lot Mobilise Try
But when you’re deprived of it for a lengthy period then you value human companionship. But you have to survive and so you devise all kinds of mental exercises and it’s amazing.
WOLE SOYINKA

All Companionship Deprive Devise Human Kind Length Period Survive
My father used to tell me stories before I fell asleep. When the children would gather, at a certain point, I had a tendency to make up my own elementary variations on stories I had heard, or to invent totally new ones.
WOLE SOYINKA

Asleep Certain Children Father Fell Gather Point Story Use
Governance can dig itself into a huge hole and not even know it’s in there.
WOLE SOYINKA

Dig Even Governance Huge Itself Know There
The man dies in all those that keep silent.
WOLE SOYINKA

All Die Keep Man Silent Those
I know there are writers who get up every morning and sit by their typewriter or word processor or pad of paper and wait to write. I don’t function that way. I go through a long period of gestation before I’m even ready to write.
WOLE SOYINKA

Every Get Know Morning Paid Paper Processor Typewriter Wait Word Write Writer
We do not ask the mountain’s aid to crack a walnut.
WOLE SOYINKA

Ask Crack Mountain Not Walnut
And gradually they’re beginning to recognize the fact that there’s nothing more secure than a democratic, accountable, and participatory form of government. But it’s sunk in only theoretically, it has not yet sunk in completely in practical terms.
WOLE SOYINKA

Accountable Beginning Democratic Fact Form Gradually More Nothing Participatory Recognize Secure
A tiger does not proclaim his tigritude, he pounces.
WOLE SOYINKA

Does Proclaim Pounce Tiger Tigribute
I’m not one of those writers I learned about who get up in the morning, put a piece of paper in their typewriter machine and start writing. That I’ve never understood.
WOLE SOYINKA

Learn Machine Morning Paper Piece Put Start Typewriter Writer Writing

Very conscious of the fact that an effort was being made to destroy my mind, because I was deprived of books, deprived of any means of writing, deprived of human companionship. You never know how much you need it until you’re deprived of it.

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Very conscious of the fact that an effort was being made to destroy my mind, because I was deprived of books, deprived of any means of writing, deprived of human companionship. You never know how much you need it until you’re deprived of it.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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