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.
WOLE SOYINKASome of us – poets are not exactly poets. We live sometimes – beyond the word.
More Wole Soyinka Quotes
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The writer is the visionary of his people… He anticipates, he warns.
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My definition of slavery is the deprivation of human volition, any form of relationship between two peoples which is based on the deprivation of volition of one side.
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If man cannot, what god dare claim perfection?
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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.
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Some of us – poets are not exactly poets. We live sometimes – beyond the word.
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Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.
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And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.
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It’s the place to begin, always — to return to home, literally.
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You cannot live a normal existence if you haven’t taken care of a problem that affects your life and affects the lives of others, values that you hold which in fact define your very existence.
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For me, a writer is already being the deuce of his mission, his occupation to society.
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As a global citizen, I sometimes feel like denying my identity.
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. . . as far as the regime is concerned, well, the play is sheer terror for them. Because they feel, How dare – how dare anybody lift his or her voice in criticism against us? We have the guns. Their level of paranoia and power-drunkenness is unbelievable.
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A tiger does not proclaim his tigritude, he pounces.
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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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Governance can dig itself into a huge hole and not even know it’s in there.
WOLE SOYINKA