Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I think that feeling that if one believed absolutely in any cause, then one must have the confidence, the self-certainty, to go through with that particular course of action. "

Wole Soyinka

Think

Confidence

Action

Related Quotes:

" Each time I think I've created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space. "

" I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself. "

Wole Soyinka

About

Fond

" 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. "

" The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist. "

" Well, first of all I'll say that I come alive best in theater. "

" 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. "

" 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

Wake Up

Day

" 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. "

" 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. "

" There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda. Propaganda can be written by anybody, including dictators. "

" I consider the process of gestation just as important as when you're actually sitting down putting words to the paper. "

" There are different kinds of artists and very often, I'll be very frank with you, I wish I were a different kind. "

" 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. "

" A tiger does not shout its tigritude, it acts. "

" A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice. "

" There's no way to escape the culture that has evolved, from which we ourselves have evolved. Naturally, we stress it, break it up, reassemble it to suit our own needs. But it is there - a source of vital strength. "

" 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

Process

" I take friendship very seriously. "

" In the world of literature, I see prizes as more of a duty to the craft itself, rather than as something for the individual. "

" Seven is the magic figure, because that's a symbolic figure of my favorite deity, Ogun. "

" 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.' "

" The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular, have been playing for time in order to conclude its mission of ethnic cleansing in the Sudan. "

" We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where. "

" One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer. "

Wole Soyinka

I Am

I Can

" 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

Meet

" I like my peace and quiet whenever I can grab it. "

Wole Soyinka

I Can

Quiet

" You cannot live a normal existence if you haven't taken care of a problem that affects your life and affects the lives of others, values that you hold which in fact define your very existence. "

" An excessive amount of my time is taken with political involvement. It's unavoidable; that's my temperament. "

" No human is completely fearless. "

Wole Soyinka

Fearless

Human

" The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. "