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The idea of having to make constant reference to politics is anathema to my calling as a writer.

Wole Soyinka

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Wole Soyinka
Age: 90
Born: 1934
Born: July 13
Author
Essayist
Novelist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
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Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Wole Soyinka
Reference
Calling
Constant
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Politics
Idea
Ideas
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Anathema

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Society itself is responsible for the degradation.
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You cannot live a normal existence if you haven't taken care of a problem that affects your life and affects the lives of others, values that you hold which in fact define your very existence.
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There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda.
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I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.
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We all have our individual artistic temperaments as well as partisanships in creative directions. And we have strong opinions on the merits of the products of our occupation.
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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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As a global citizen, I sometimes feel like denying my identity.
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Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.
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I am a very curious person I'll always ask: is this thing true, is it not true? And I use my own means to investigate and come to my conclusion.
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My definition of slavery is the deprivation of human volition, any form of relationship between two peoples which is based on the deprivation of volition of one side.
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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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Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer-space.
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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?
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One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer.
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My father used to tell me stories before I fell asleep. When the children would gather, at a certain point, I had a tendency to make up my own elementary variations on stories I had heard, or to invent totally new ones.
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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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Governance can dig itself into a huge hole and not even know it's in there.
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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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Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
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Don't feel that you have to tailor your literature a particular way to please any school of ideology. There will emerge in its own right, effortlessly, some kind of ideological direction which is a reflection of your thinking and you want your thinking, above all.
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