I believe that each writer must decide in which language he or she is most comfortable.
WOLE SOYINKAWe live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where.
More Wole Soyinka Quotes
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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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For me, a writer is already being the deuce of his mission, his occupation to society.
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I 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.
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Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.
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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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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.
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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.
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I don’t really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.
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Colonialism bred an innate arrogance, but when you undertake that sort of imperial adventure, that arrogance gives way to a feeling of accommodativeness. You take pride in your openness.
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The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail.
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The man dies in all those that keep silent.
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Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will hardly ever be resolved. I can define in fact, can simplify the history of human society, the evolution of human society, as a contest between power and freedom.
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We all have our individual artistic temperaments as well as partisanships in creative directions. And we have strong opinions on the merits of the products of our occupation.
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But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That’s all.
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I consider the process of gestation just as important as when you’re actually sitting down putting words to the paper.
WOLE SOYINKA