The writer is the visionary of his people… He anticipates, he warns.
WOLE SOYINKAI have one abiding religion-human liberty.
More Wole Soyinka Quotes
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To achieve any change in the minds of the youth, there must be reorientation in terms of materialistic tendencies, corruption and crime generally.
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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 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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. . . 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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Looking at faces of people, one gets the feeling there’s a lot of work to be done.
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Well, some people say I’m pessimistic because I recognize the eternal cycle of evil. All I say is, look at the history of mankind right up to this moment and what do you find?
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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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Some of us – poets are not exactly poets. We live sometimes – beyond the word.
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For me, a writer is already being the deuce of his mission, his occupation to society.
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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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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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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.
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We do not ask the mountain’s aid to crack a walnut.
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Romance is the sweetening of the soul With fragrance offered by the stricken heart.
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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.
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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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Religion has really spawned some monsters. It always has, historically. Go all the way back to the Inquisition, you know, the Crusades, the Jehad and so on.
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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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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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I consider the process of gestation just as important as when you’re actually sitting down putting words to the paper.
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As a global citizen, I sometimes feel like denying my identity.
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My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a certain point, the human point in which everything is related to one another. That has been my creative experience.
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No man beholds his mother’s womb Yet who denies it’s there? Coiled To the navel of the world is that Endless cord that links us all To the great Origin. If I lose my way. The trailing cord will bring me to the roots.
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Each time I think Ive created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space.
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Don’t take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
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Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.
WOLE SOYINKA