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.
WOLE SOYINKAIf man cannot, what god dare claim perfection?
More Wole Soyinka Quotes
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What I teach is literary criticism and comparative literature and so on and that’s my function, but from time to time it’s possible for me actually to help a writer. I read something and something strikes me then, I feel I can talk to that writer about it.
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I don’t really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.
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Arts and the Sciences are a natural symbiosis. They stem from the same human existential impulse – exploration. Exploration of what lies beneath the surface, and re-confuguration of elements of what we call reality.
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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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The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail.
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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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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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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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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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For me, justice is the prime condition of humanity.
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Mythology can be used, and has been used, even to re-state, you know, the very urgent problems of the world.
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As a global citizen, I sometimes feel like denying my identity.
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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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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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It’s the place to begin, always — to return to home, literally.
WOLE SOYINKA






