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I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture.
Wole Soyinka
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Wole Soyinka
Age: 90
Born: 1934
Born: July 13
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Essayist
Novelist
Philosopher
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Poet
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Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Wole Soyinka
Grew
Words
Culture
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Integral
Atmosphere
More quotes by Wole Soyinka
As I grew older and more mature, I've been able to move beyond the immediate response of violence to a projection of the pragmatic, political consequences of that violence. So it's an effort to attain equilibrium.
Wole Soyinka
If man cannot, what god dare claim perfection?
Wole Soyinka
I never hesitated, as a student, in embracing the necessity of violence. In South Africa, I didn't just accept it I looked forward to it as a mission.
Wole Soyinka
I can look violence in the face and either reject or accept it.
Wole Soyinka
I come alive when I have assisted in bringing out the printed word on the stage, you know, and I enjoy directing plays. It's a tactile process, theatre, unlike a number of other forms of the creative work.
Wole Soyinka
How do I feel when I am invited to a congregation of scientists? I feel quite at home. When they break into their cultic scientific argot, I know when I'm not wanted and step out for a drink.
Wole Soyinka
You accept whoever you are interacting with, directly, or indirectly.
Wole Soyinka
I consider the process of gestation just as important as when you're actually sitting down putting words to the paper.
Wole Soyinka
But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That's all.
Wole Soyinka
Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.
Wole Soyinka
Sadly however, I discovered in one particular case that a colleague went and paid the bribe on my behalf, just to get our mission fulfilled. That was painful, and it strained our friendship.
Wole Soyinka
We do not ask the mountain's aid to crack a walnut.
Wole Soyinka
My interest in culture generally is a comparative one, and I think that's where the word joy, I think, can be applicable. There's joy in actually seeing the relatedness, the connectedness of different cultures or recognising, for instance, your own culture in another or another culture in your own culture and feeling an air to all of them.
Wole Soyinka
It's my duty to fight those who have chosen to belong to the party of death, those who say they receive their orders from God somewhere and believe they have a duty to set the world on fire to achieve their own salvation.
Wole Soyinka
When a leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost and it makes the work harder for the rest of us.
Wole Soyinka
I tend to work best as a one-man Task Force, including even the roles of messenger, coffee maker and office cleaner.
Wole Soyinka
We wasted a lot of creative energy in that immediate post colonial era, when there was a struggle between, you know, the Cold War between the capitalism and communism. Many writers just wasted their energy and their talent because they want to be ideologically correct and of course all they produced was propaganda.
Wole Soyinka
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
Intolerance has always been with us, you know. The moment you have ideology, we have intolerance, whether it's the secular ideology or, you know ideocratic ideology, which always brings with it some kind of intolerance.
Wole Soyinka
There are different kinds of artists and very often, I'll be very frank with you, I wish I were a different kind.
Wole Soyinka