Wole Soyinka Quotes - Page 6

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• I do not believe that it is necessarily the duty of the writer to give a voice to his community. If a writer is true to his vocation, to his or her vocation, the very process of creativity enlarges these human horizons. It provides insights, even when you're not writing, when your writing's not dealing with a concrete political situation.

  Wole Soyinka

  Believe, Writing, Creativity

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• I think I'm a very lazy writer and by that I mean that I do not battle, I don't struggle too hard against it. If I have difficulties in the writing, I just go and do other things. I don't feel a compulsion to write.

  Wole Soyinka

  Struggle, Writing, Mean

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• I think most writers would like a quiet space, complete isolation, in which they control their own time. Spaces of creativity in which there's very little interruption.

  Wole Soyinka

  Creativity, Thinking, Space

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• Obasanjo has openly endorsed violence as a means of governance, embraced and empowered individuals whose avowed declarations, confessions and acts are cynically contrary to the mandate that alone upholds the legitimacy and dignity of his office.

  Wole Soyinka

  Mean, Office, Violence

  4 Copy quote

• I think Nigerians got it wrong from independence as people became so conscious of the divisions because we wanted so much to satisfy the plurality of interests. I will say, we neglected the importance of real value, human value and the quality of potential in human beings and we contrived phrases like geographical spread, regional quota, etc and allowed mediocrity to reign. I think that is the problem that we are dealing with till today.

  Wole Soyinka

  Real, Thinking, People

  Source: saharareporters.com

  7 Copy quote

• I come alive when I have assisted in bringing out the printed word on the stage, you know, and I enjoy directing plays. It's a tactile process, theatre, unlike a number of other forms of the creative work.

  Wole Soyinka

  Play, Printed Word, Numbers

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  5 Copy quote

• I think the epicentre of terrorism whether you call it cesspit or whatever you want to call it, shift, if you asked me a while ago, I would have said Somalia, Somalia has quietened a bit - and I think the epicentre right now is in Northern Nigeria.

  Wole Soyinka

  Thinking, Terrorism, Nigeria

  Source: whatsonafrica.org

  5 Copy quote

• Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped.

  Wole Soyinka

  Paris, Black, Yards

  "Ousting monsters" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. November 2, 2002.

  10 Copy quote

• The idea of having to make constant reference to politics is anathema to my calling as a writer.

  Wole Soyinka

  Ideas, Calling, Anathema

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  6 Copy quote

• When I tried to create a new political party, which I stressed that this is not my party. I believe very much that there has to be a revolution and this is a party for the young.

  Wole Soyinka

  Party, Believe, Political

  Source: secure.saharareporters.com

  4 Copy quote

• We must acknowledge that we made a huge error in satisfying the lowest common denominator of the available human potential in Nigeria and we elevated what I call the reign of mediocrity. Quite frankly, I think it is about repudiating the past, creating space for new thinking for the best of the new generation, creating both political and geographical space and going at it with single mindedness that says, 'enough of buttering, sentiments and massaging the ego of the old brigade'.

  Wole Soyinka

  Past, Thinking, Space

  Source: saharareporters.com

  4 Copy quote

• Don't feel that you have to tailor your literature a particular way to please any school of ideology. There will emerge in its own right, effortlessly, some kind of ideological direction which is a reflection of your thinking and you want your thinking, above all.

  Wole Soyinka

  School, Thinking, Reflection

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• For many playwrights, they write the plays anyway because they've got to be, the work has been started, it's got to be finished, but we all long, I think, to see the plays fleshed out on stage and I'm exactly like that. Yes, I'm not satisfied until I actually see it on stage.

  Wole Soyinka

  Writing, Thinking, Play

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• I grew up with a very strong sense of what is just and what is not or, to put it this way, I grew up with a keen sense of a division, the reality of a division of perception in people's lives between those who govern and those who govern.

  Wole Soyinka

  Strong, Reality, People

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• The Egba kingdom was one of the very last to be ceded to the British protectorate. It remained almost an independent entity within what is now known as Nigeria, simply because of its own traditional structure of governance.

  Wole Soyinka

  Independent, Kingdoms, Lasts

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• I tend to work best as a one-man Task Force, including even the roles of messenger, coffee maker and office cleaner.

  Wole Soyinka

  Coffee, Men, Office

  Source: saharareporters.com

  4 Copy quote

• Next to the commodities of corruption, and religion, however, Nigeria is the world capital of rumour mongering.

  Wole Soyinka

  Next, World, Corruption

  Source: saharareporters.com

  8 Copy quote

• As you get drawn more and more into other activities, like political activities, very demanding, you have to find different rhythms of writing; I think that's the word I'm looking for, rhythms of creativity which then, of course, become very intense. I think your writing then tends to be very intensified simply because there are other demands which seem equally important.

  Wole Soyinka

  Writing, Creativity, Thinking

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• If I were sure I would pass the physicals, I would be on the next space shuttle to Mars or some other planet. I'll leave the calculations and the navigational tasks to you while I bask in your ingenuity. Find me a place in the capsule and watch me outdo Michael Jackson's moonwalk to the music of the spheres.

  Wole Soyinka

  Watch Me, Ingenuity, Find Me

  Source: www.lindau-nobel.org

  4 Copy quote

• The problem with literature, with writing, is that it works sometimes in terms of correction of social ills. Other times, it just does not suffice. The proof of that is the ability of a dictator to snuff out the life of a writer.

  Wole Soyinka

  Writing, Doe, Literature

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• How do I feel when I am invited to a congregation of scientists? I feel quite at home. When they break into their cultic scientific argot, I know when I'm not wanted and step out for a drink.

  Wole Soyinka

  Home, Drink, Scientist

  Source: www.lindau-nobel.org

  4 Copy quote

• Sadly however, I discovered in one particular case that a colleague went and paid the bribe on my behalf, just to get our mission fulfilled. That was painful, and it strained our friendship.

  Wole Soyinka

  Painful, Bribe

  Source: secure.saharareporters.com

  4 Copy quote

• When you start a political party, you are creating space for yourself. So many people were shocked when they realized that I was serious and had no interest in occupying any political position, so they started to fall out one by one.

  Wole Soyinka

  Party, Fall, People

  Source: secure.saharareporters.com

  4 Copy quote

• I believe that prizes are useful things for the disciplines, whether we are talking about chemistry or we're talking... It motivates, it, you know, inspires, it encourages and it brings, in the case of literature, it brings literature, the arts out of the ghetto.

  Wole Soyinka

  Art, Believe, Ghetto

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  4 Copy quote

• I am disturbed for instance when I read that a candidate said, 'I will not probe anybody or something like that'. You don't fight corruption by sweeping everything under the carpet, you don't.

  Wole Soyinka

  Fighting, Corruption, Disturbed

  Source: secure.saharareporters.com

  4 Copy quote

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