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" I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident. "
Wole Soyinka
Just
Out
Myself
Related Quotes:
" Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer space. "
Wole Soyinka
Dictatorship
Nation
Outer Space
" The writer is the visionary of his people... He anticipates, he warns. "
Wole Soyinka
Visionary
People
He
" All religions accept that there is something called 'criminality.' And criminality cannot be excused by religious fervour. "
Wole Soyinka
Accept
Something
Religious
" Well, first of all I'll say that I come alive best in theater. "
Wole Soyinka
Come
First
Best
" There is something really horrific for any human being who feels he is being consumed by other people. I'm talking about a writer's critics, who don't address what you've written, but want to probe into your existence and magnify the trivia of your life without any sense of humor, without any sense of context. "
Wole Soyinka
Life
Humor
You
" I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself. "
Wole Soyinka
About
Fond
Like
" I consider the process of gestation just as important as when you're actually sitting down putting words to the paper. "
Wole Soyinka
Words
Process
Important
" 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 found, when I left, that there were others who felt the same way. We'd meet, they'd come and seek me out, we'd talk about the future. And I found that their depression and pessimism was every bit as acute as mine. "
Wole Soyinka
Depression
Me
Meet
" One has a responsibility to clean up one's space and make it livable as far as one's own resources go. That includes not only material resources, but psychological resources: the commitment of time and a portion of your mind to something when you'd rather be doing something else. "
Wole Soyinka
Commitment
Time
Space
" My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being. "
Wole Soyinka
Reading
Me
Music
" One's own self-worth is tied to the worth of the community to which one belongs, which is intimately connected to humanity in general. What happens in Darfur becomes an assault on my own community, and on me as an individual. That's what the human family is all about. "
Wole Soyinka
Worth
Me
Humanity
" I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture. "
Wole Soyinka
Words
Where
Up
" Even when I'm writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I'm writing for. "
Wole Soyinka
Enjoy
I Think
Think
" 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
" And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others. "
Wole Soyinka
Process
Work
Learning
" 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
" You go to conferences, and your fellow African intellectuals - and even heads of state - they all say: 'Nigeria is a big disappointment. It is the shame of the African continent.' "
Wole Soyinka
You
Say
Big
" Very conscious of the fact that an effort was being made to destroy my mind, because I was deprived of books, deprived of any means of writing, deprived of human companionship. You never know how much you need it until you're deprived of it. "
Wole Soyinka
Mind
Need
Writing
" We Nigerians must reclaim our sovereignty, our civic entitlements. "
Wole Soyinka
Must
Our
Reclaim
" There's a kind of dynamic quality about theater and that dynamic quality expresses itself in relation to, first of all, the environment in which it's being staged; then the audience, the nature of the audience, the quality of the audience. "
Wole Soyinka
Quality
Environment
Kind
" I like to say, 'I spend one-third of my time in Nigeria, one-third in Europe or America, and one-third on a plane.' "
Wole Soyinka
America
Europe
Time
" There's something about the theater which makes my fingertips tingle. "
Wole Soyinka
Makes
Theater
Fingertips
" The phenomenon of creativity, we know, is closely related to the ability to yoke together separate, and even seemingly incompatible, matrices. "
Wole Soyinka
Know
Together
Creativity
" Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the ownership of land. "
Wole Soyinka
Greatest
Land
Mexico
" The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. "
Wole Soyinka
Criticism
Greatest
Absence
" I began writing early - very, very early... I was already writing short stories for the radio and selling poems to poetry and art festivals; I was involved in school plays; I wrote essays, so there was no definite moment when I said, 'Now I'm a writer.' I've always been a writer. "
Wole Soyinka
Poetry
Art
School
" The Lagos of my childhood was a well-laid-out maritime city. "
Wole Soyinka
Childhood
Maritime
City
" We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where. "
Wole Soyinka
World
Where
Matter
" 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