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" I don't know any other way to live but to wake up every day armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me. "
Wole Soyinka
Me
Wake Up
Day
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" I am a glutton for tranquility. "
Wole Soyinka
Tranquility
I Am
Am
" England is the breeding ground of fundamentalist Muslims. Its social logic is to allow all religions to preach openly. But this is illogic, because none of the other religions preach apocalyptic violence. And yet England allows it. "
Wole Soyinka
Religions
Ground
Logic
" One, a mass movement from within, which, as you know, is constantly being put down brutally but which, again, regroups and moves forward as is happening right now as we are speaking. "
Wole Soyinka
Now
Right
You
" One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer. "
Wole Soyinka
Am
I Am
I Can
" And gradually they're beginning to recognize the fact that there's nothing more secure than a democratic, accountable, and participatory form of government. But it's sunk in only theoretically, it has not yet sunk in completely in practical terms. "
Wole Soyinka
Nothing
More
Government
" My father was a schoolteacher, and so I had the advantage of both western educational instruction in the school, as well as what you might call the process of imbibing the traditional processes of education instruction around me. "
Wole Soyinka
Father
Me
Process
" 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
Walk
Black
Lost
" The writer is the visionary of his people... He anticipates, he warns. "
Wole Soyinka
Visionary
People
He
" In Africa, those who have money - businessmen and banks - do not believe in film. "
Wole Soyinka
Believe
Those
Africa
" I don't have the sort of temperament that submits to Christianity or Islam. "
Wole Soyinka
Islam
Sort
Christianity
" No writer has a right to make that much money. Indeed, without diabolical assistance, no writer can. "
Wole Soyinka
Right
Writer
Much
" Writers and intellectuals have a duty to humanity. It is to insist that the human entity remains the primary asset in overall development; thus, it must be safeguarded. "
Wole Soyinka
Duty
Development
Must
" I ceased using words like optimism and pessimism a long time ago. "
Wole Soyinka
Time
Optimism
Long Time
" African film makers are scraping by on a mere pittance. "
Wole Soyinka
Scraping
Mere
African
" The blatant aggressiveness of theocracies I find distressing, because I grew up when Christians, Muslim and animists lived peacefully together. "
Wole Soyinka
Find
Lived
Together
" Writing in certain environments carries with it an occupational risk. "
Wole Soyinka
Environments
Certain
Risk
" Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress the truth. "
Wole Soyinka
Books
Always
Writing
" Those nations that say it's a crime to preach your religion are making a terrible mistake. All they're doing is driving underground other forms of spiritual intuitions and practices. "
Wole Soyinka
Mistake
Spiritual
Driving
" No human is completely fearless. "
Wole Soyinka
Fearless
Human
" The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. "
Wole Soyinka
Criticism
Greatest
Absence
" The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail. "
Wole Soyinka
Eat
Bottom
Will
" An idyllic period of my existence was when I had a den attached to my home... a writing den, and no one had access to that unless they had their own special visa, applied for weeks in advance. "
Wole Soyinka
Existence
Home
Writing
" Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent. "
Wole Soyinka
History
World
Together
" In the world of literature, I see prizes as more of a duty to the craft itself, rather than as something for the individual. "
Wole Soyinka
See
Craft
Duty
" Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth. "
Wole Soyinka
Truth
Books
Terror
" When I write plays, I'm already seeing the shapes on stage, of the actors and their interaction, and so on and so forth. I don't think I've ever written one play as an abstract piece, as a literary piece, floating in the air somewhere, to be flushed out later on. "
Wole Soyinka
Think
Air
Play
" There is only one home to the life of a river-mussel; there is only one home to the life of a tortoise; there is only one shell to the soul of man: there is only one world to the spirit of our race. If that world leaves its course and smashes on boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter? "
Wole Soyinka
Home
Great
World
" Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal. "
Wole Soyinka
Growth
True
People
" Some African leaders actually dare to suggest that democracy is a concept alien to traditional African society. This is one of the most impudent political blasphemies I can think of. "
Wole Soyinka
Society
Democracy
Political
" I've always written plays for the purpose of getting something out of my system. "
Wole Soyinka
System
Purpose
Out