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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.

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
Convinced
Fumes
Without
Petroleum
Smelled
Country
Nigeria
Never
Wished
Would
Highly
Oil
Developed

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I know there are writers who get up every morning and sit by their typewriter or word processor or pad of paper and wait to write. I don't function that way. I go through a long period of gestation before I'm even ready to write.
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Everybody knows that fraternities are a normal culture in all colleges. It exists in all colleges. President Clinton was a member of a fraternity. In fact, anybody who goes to College in the United States is a member of a College fraternity. There is absolutely nothing evil or occultic about fraternity.
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When you start a political party, you are creating space for yourself. So many people were shocked when they realized that I was serious and had no interest in occupying any political position, so they started to fall out one by one.
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Alfred Nobel regretted that his invention, dynamite, was converted to degrading use, hence his creation of the Nobel Prize, as the humanist counter to the destructive power of his genius.
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I think I'm a very lazy writer and by that I mean that I do not battle, I don't struggle too hard against it. If I have difficulties in the writing, I just go and do other things. I don't feel a compulsion to write.
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I am a glutton for tranquility.
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When a leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost and it makes the work harder for the rest of us.
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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.
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You accept whoever you are interacting with, directly, or indirectly.
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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.
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Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
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We do not ask the mountain's aid to crack a walnut.
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The idea of having to make constant reference to politics is anathema to my calling as a writer.
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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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If you are corrupt and you have extra cash you are able to shut the mouth of your accuser and they will be silenced.
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I have one abiding religion-human liberty.
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Even when I'm writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I'm writing for.
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No man beholds his mother's womb Yet who denies it's there? Coiled To the navel of the world is that Endless cord that links us all To the great Origin. If I lose my way. The trailing cord will bring me to the roots.
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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.
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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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