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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

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Wole Soyinka
Age: 90
Born: 1934
Born: July 13
Author
Essayist
Novelist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Professor
Translator
Writer
Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Wole Soyinka
Writing
Means
Much
Facts
Companionship
Made
Human
Deprived
Mind
Humans
Destroy
Never
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Mean
Books
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Fact

More quotes by Wole Soyinka

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I can look violence in the face and either reject or accept it.
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And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.
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Let's say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don't think we have a new Nigeria yet.
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When I say war, I'm not talking about mental war I'm talking about totally eliminating the obstacles to transformation of our children.
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To achieve any change in the minds of the youth, there must be reorientation in terms of materialistic tendencies, corruption and crime generally.
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The writer is the visionary of his people... He anticipates, he warns.
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When you fight corruption, corruption strikes back and that is the truth because when you fight corruption, you get confidence and when it gets to impunity, then it gets aggressive and says, 'oh, so you think you are different? You think you are tough and different?' This is why some of us are almost permanently in the libel court.
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History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice.
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The youth should come together to challenge the status quo. They must not give up.
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Some of us – poets are not exactly poets. We live sometimes – beyond the word.
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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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A human feast is an indifferent morsel to a god.
Wole Soyinka
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My mind immediately shot to South Africa the moment I sat down to think what I was going to write, what I was going to say. There was no other choice.
Wole Soyinka
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Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.
Wole Soyinka
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For me, a writer is already being the deuce of his mission, his occupation to society.
Wole Soyinka
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Sadness is twilight's kiss on earth.
Wole Soyinka
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I cannot accept the definition of collective good as articulated by a privileged minority in society, especially when that minority is in power.
Wole Soyinka
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For many playwrights, they write the plays anyway because they've got to be, the work has been started, it's got to be finished, but we all long, I think, to see the plays fleshed out on stage and I'm exactly like that. Yes, I'm not satisfied until I actually see it on stage.
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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
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Romance is the sweetening of the soul With fragrance offered by the stricken heart.
Wole Soyinka