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Well, some people say I'm pessimistic because I recognize the eternal cycle of evil. All I say is, look at the history of mankind right up to this moment and what do you find?

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
Looks
Evil
Right
Moment
People
History
Pessimistic
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Cycle
Find
Cycles
Look
Recognize
Wells
Eternal
Well
Mankind

More quotes by Wole Soyinka

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The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist.
Wole Soyinka
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I do not believe that it is necessarily the duty of the writer to give a voice to his community. If a writer is true to his vocation, to his or her vocation, the very process of creativity enlarges these human horizons. It provides insights, even when you're not writing, when your writing's not dealing with a concrete political situation.
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We live in the real world - we live within a certain history of the plague that has landed on us.
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I consider the process of gestation just as important as when you're actually sitting down putting words to the paper.
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There are different kinds of artists and very often, I'll be very frank with you, I wish I were a different kind.
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In European and American society, many pundits started to lament the death of literature looking at youth who were getting more and more attracted to sitcoms - hard, adventure films and said, our children are no longer reading, or else they're reading cartoons.
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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.
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I tend to work best as a one-man Task Force, including even the roles of messenger, coffee maker and office cleaner.
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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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I began writing early - very, very early... I was already writing short stories for the radio and selling poems to poetry and art festivals I was involved in school plays I wrote essays, so there was no definite moment when I said, 'Now I'm a writer.' I've always been a writer.
Wole Soyinka
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Writers who open up horizons for other people are performing a function every bit as important as a consciously politicized writer.
Wole Soyinka
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When I tried to create a new political party, which I stressed that this is not my party. I believe very much that there has to be a revolution and this is a party for the young.
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Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others.
Wole Soyinka
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Society itself is responsible for the degradation.
Wole Soyinka
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Be yourself. Ultimately just be yourself.
Wole Soyinka
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A tiger does not proclaim his tigritude, he pounces.
Wole Soyinka
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I can look violence in the face and either reject or accept it.
Wole Soyinka
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Mythology can be used, and has been used, even to re-state, you know, the very urgent problems of the world.
Wole Soyinka
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We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where.
Wole Soyinka
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I believe that prizes are useful things for the disciplines, whether we are talking about chemistry or we're talking... It motivates, it, you know, inspires, it encourages and it brings, in the case of literature, it brings literature, the arts out of the ghetto.
Wole Soyinka