Wole Soyinka Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• I believe that each writer must decide in which language he or she is most comfortable.

  Wole Soyinka

  Believe, I Believe, Language

  Source: whatsonafrica.org

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Wole Soyinka

  Media, People, Addresses

  Source: saharareporters.com

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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.

  Wole Soyinka

  Adventure, Pride, Giving

  FaceBook post by Wole Soyinka from Jul 22, 2016

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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.

  Wole Soyinka

  Strong, Creative, Opinion

  Source: ynaija.com

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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.

  Wole Soyinka

  Kind, Moments, Intolerance

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

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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.

  Wole Soyinka

  World, Problem, Used

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

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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.

  Wole Soyinka

  Morning, Writing, Typewriters

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• The very function of creativity, of the elaboration of the human condition only enlarges the human spirit and, I mean, as a writer I don't want to read political literature all the time. It would be terribly boring and, you know, abrasive, but just reading the insights, you know, partaking of the insights of a writer into phenomena, into society, into human relationships, both on a micro level and on a macro level, is already a function.

  Wole Soyinka

  Reading, Mean, Creativity

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

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• Everybody knows that fraternities are a normal culture in all colleges. It exists in all colleges. President Clinton was a member of a fraternity. In fact, anybody who goes to College in the United States is a member of a College fraternity. There is absolutely nothing evil or occultic about fraternity.

  Wole Soyinka

  College, Evil, President

  Source: saharareporters.com

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• The gods in Yoruba mythology are not remote at all. They're benign, they're malign, they are mischievous, like Eshu for instance, tricksters, rascally, fornicators, that's a similarity to Greek mythology, for instance, you know. They're not saints, they're not saints. They're powerful. It's why they're not tyrannical. Of course, a number of them are also very, you know, benevolent, you know, there are saintly virtues to be found in them.

  Wole Soyinka

  Powerful, Numbers, Greek

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  11 Copy quote

• You have the entire gamut of human experience captured in the mythology of the Yoruba. This is what makes the Yoruba mythology a natural source material for me in my creative endeavours.

  Wole Soyinka

  Creative, Natural, Endeavour

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

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• The process of decolonisation in Nigeria was a very untidy one. The British, when they were leaving finally and knew exactly who they wanted to take over, they wanted pliant government, figures, structures, they wanted to continue indirectly in effect their control over much of their colonial possessions and this was one of the very early causes of conflict.

  Wole Soyinka

  Government, Leaving, Causes

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

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• I was born into a Christian household, in a parsonage in fact, so I grew up in sort of a missionary atmosphere but it was an environment which involved both the traditional religions as well as the Muslim religion, so we were exposed to all the various facets of faith, micro cultures which existed within those beliefs, and even though I've lost whatever Christian faith was drummed into me as a child, I still maintain very good relationship with all the various religions.

  Wole Soyinka

  Christian, Children, Good Relationship

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

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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.

  Wole Soyinka

  Art, Communication, Social

  77 Copy quote

• Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others.

  Wole Soyinka

  Thinking, Sometimes, Humans

  Source: www.nairaland.com

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• Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of a community can be, a hero always emerges. Although no one can dare claim that it is now a perfect state, and that no more work is needed, Rwanda has risen from the ashes as a model or truth and reconciliation.

  Wole Soyinka

  Hero, Perfect, Community

  FaceBook post by Wole Soyinka from May 21, 2015

  61 Copy quote

• I am a glutton for tranquility.

  Wole Soyinka

  Tranquility

  "Wole Soyinka: Running to Stand Still". Interview with Dave Gilson, www.motherjones.com. July/August 2006.

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• There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda.

  Wole Soyinka

  Writing, Special, Doe

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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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.

  Wole Soyinka

  Humanity, Theatre, Sake

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

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• Boko Haram represents the ultimate Fatwa of our time. The question is does the sect's Fatwa represent the articulated position of the majority of Muslims in this nation? My reading over the last few years is an unambiguous no. We are undergoing an affliction that many could not have imagined about a decade ago. Let us confront the ultimate horror now. To remain inactive at this moment is to betray our children and to consolidate the ongoing crimes against our humanity. We must take the battle to the enemy...We sent our children to school; we must bring them back to school.

  Wole Soyinka

  Children, Reading, School

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• In European and American society, many pundits started to lament the death of literature; looking at youth who were getting more and more attracted to sitcoms - hard, adventure films and said, our children are no longer reading, or else they're reading cartoons.

  Wole Soyinka

  Children, Reading, Adventure

  Source: whatsonafrica.org

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• For me, a writer is already being the deuce of his mission, his occupation to society.

  Wole Soyinka

  Deuces, Occupation, Missions

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

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• A human feast is an indifferent morsel to a god.

  Wole Soyinka

  Perspective, Indifferent, Humans

  Wole Soyinka (1998). “Early Poems”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Writers throughout the ages have one weapon, which is literature, but they also have their responsibilities as a citizen when literature does not seem to suffice. I mean, they are not mutually exclusive. One continues to write anyway but if you are called out to demonstrate, if people are being killed in the streets, it's hardly the moment to go for your pen and paper, you know, help in one way or the other.

  Wole Soyinka

  Responsibility, Writing, Mean

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• I know there are other writers who sit down religiously every morning, they take their espresso, they put a clean sheet of paper there and they sit looking at that paper until they've finished or covered at least a number of those pages. No, I'm not like that. I have to be ready. It has to gestate it for quite a while and then it's ready to burst forth.

  Wole Soyinka

  Morning, Espresso, Numbers

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

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