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Wole Soyinka Quotes


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Wole Soyinka
July 13, 1934 -
Category: Dramatist

Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.

   

Looking at faces of people, one gets the feeling there's a lot of work to be done.

   

I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture.

   

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.

   

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.

   

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.

   

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

   

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.

   

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.

   

Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will hardly ever be resolved. I can define in fact, can simplify the history of human society, the evolution of human society, as a contest between power and freedom.

   

Even when I'm writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I'm writing for.

   

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

   

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

   

But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That's all.

   

The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail.

   

I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.

   

And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.

   

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.

   

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.

   

But when you're deprived of it for a lengthy period then you value human companionship. But you have to survive and so you devise all kinds of mental exercises and it's amazing.

   

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