I am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wished we’d never smelled the fumes of petroleum.
WOLE SOYINKAI rarely use mythology for its own sake because, as a theatre person, the mythological figures are in fact humanity to the ninth degree and Yoruba mythology in particular has fascination of being one of the most humanised mythologies in the world.
More Wole Soyinka Quotes
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I cannot accept the definition of collective good as articulated by a privileged minority in society, especially when that minority is in power.
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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.
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I can look violence in the face and either reject or accept it.
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Don’t take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
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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.
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Let’s say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don’t think we have a new Nigeria yet.
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But theater, because of its nature, both text, images, multimedia effects, has a wider base of communication with an audience. That’s why I call it the most social of the various art forms.
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When a leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost and it makes the work harder for the rest of us.
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The writer is the visionary of his people… He anticipates, he warns.
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As a global citizen, I sometimes feel like denying my identity.
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I never hesitated, as a student, in embracing the necessity of violence. In South Africa, I didn’t just accept it; I looked forward to it as a mission.
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See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome.
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There is only one home to the life of a river-mussel; there is only one home to the life of a tortoise; there is only one shell to the soul of man: there is only one world to the spirit of our race. If that world leaves its course and smashes on boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter?
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The media must be used effectively to reach the masses. You have to find a new language in which to address the people and demonstrate what is possible.
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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






