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" 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
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" I'm not sure I'm trying to communicate a message. I'm just trying to be part of the movement away from the unacceptable present. "
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" Nigeria has had the misfortune - no, the fortune - of seeing the worst face of capitalism anywhere in Africa. The masses have seen it, they are disgusted, and they want an alternative. "
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" We Nigerians must reclaim our sovereignty, our civic entitlements. "
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" Just like birds, hunters know no borders. "
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" Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth. "
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" Human life has meaning only to that degree and as long as it is lived in the service of humanity. "
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" 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. "
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" African film makers are scraping by on a mere pittance. "
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" I am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wished we'd never smelled the fumes of petroleum. "
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" Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake. "
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Own
Vision
Work
" Some people think the Nobel Prize makes you bullet-proof. I never had that illusion. "
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You
Never
People
" I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident. "
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Just
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" I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society. "
Wole Soyinka
Take
Best
Society
" 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.' "
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Say
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" I've done a lot of guerrilla theater in my time. "
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Time
Theater
My Time
" Seven is the magic figure, because that's a symbolic figure of my favorite deity, Ogun. "
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Magic
Seven
Figure
" 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, 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
" Education is lacking in most of those who pontificate. "
Wole Soyinka
Lacking
Who
Those
" The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. "
Wole Soyinka
Criticism
Greatest
Absence
" There's something about the theater which makes my fingertips tingle. "
Wole Soyinka
Makes
Theater
Fingertips
" 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. "
Wole Soyinka
Special
Write
Encourage
" 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. "
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Growth
True
People
" 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
" I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself. "
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" Probably to me the greatest singer, female voice, is Billie Holiday. And one of the most moving for me, I don't know why - maybe it's nostalgia, maybe because my life is one of constant partying, whatever. "
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" An excessive amount of my time is taken with political involvement. It's unavoidable; that's my temperament. "
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Time
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" For me, justice is the prime condition of humanity. "
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Condition
Humanity
" 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
Communication
Nature
Art
" Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the ownership of land. "
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Greatest
Land
Mexico