Top 225 Quotes & Sayings by Wole Soyinka - Page 2

There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda. Propaganda can be written by anybody, including dictators.

Writing in certain environments carries with it an occupational risk.

We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where.

There is something really horrific for any human being who feels he is being consumed by other people. I'm talking about a writer's critics, who don't address what you've written, but want to probe into your existence and magnify the trivia of your life without any sense of humor, without any sense of context.

Writers and intellectuals have a duty to humanity. It is to insist that the human entity remains the primary asset in overall development; thus, it must be safeguarded.

In the world of literature, I see prizes as more of a duty to the craft itself, rather than as something for the individual.

African film makers are scraping by on a mere pittance.

I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence.

Some African leaders actually dare to suggest that democracy is a concept alien to traditional African society. This is one of the most impudent political blasphemies I can think of.

The blatant aggressiveness of theocracies I find distressing, because I grew up when Christians, Muslim and animists lived peacefully together.

The scales of reckoning with mortality are never evenly weighted, alas, and thus it is on the shoulders of the living that the burden of justice must continue to rest.

Well, first of all I'll say that I come alive best in theater.

There are different kinds of artists and very often, I'll be very frank with you, I wish I were a different kind.

There's a kind of dynamic quality about theater and that dynamic quality expresses itself in relation to, first of all, the environment in which it's being staged; then the audience, the nature of the audience, the quality of the audience.

Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the ownership of land.

My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a certain point, the human point in which everything is related to one another. That has been my creative experience. I never know who's influencing me at any time.

I cannot belong to a nation which permits such barbarities as stoning to death and amputation - I don't care what religion it is.

An excessive amount of my time is taken with political involvement. It's unavoidable; that's my temperament.

The writer is the visionary of his people... He anticipates, he warns.

I've done a lot of guerrilla theater in my time.

The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular, have been playing for time in order to conclude its mission of ethnic cleansing in the Sudan.

All religions accept that there is something called 'criminality.' And criminality cannot be excused by religious fervour.

I ceased using words like optimism and pessimism a long time ago.

Probably to me the greatest singer, female voice, is Billie Holiday. And one of the most moving for me, I don't know why - maybe it's nostalgia, maybe because my life is one of constant partying, whatever.

Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will hardly ever be resolved. I can define in fact, can simplify the history of human society, the evolution of human society, as a contest between power and freedom.

Before you're a writer, you're a citizen, a human being, and therefore the weapons of the citizen are at your disposal to use or not use.

We Nigerians must reclaim our sovereignty, our civic entitlements.

The problem with literature, with writing, is that it works sometimes in terms of correction of social ills. Other times, it just does not suffice.

One, a mass movement from within, which, as you know, is constantly being put down brutally but which, again, regroups and moves forward as is happening right now as we are speaking.

I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself.

There's something about the theater which makes my fingertips tingle.

No human is completely fearless.

England is the breeding ground of fundamentalist Muslims. Its social logic is to allow all religions to preach openly. But this is illogic, because none of the other religions preach apocalyptic violence. And yet England allows it.

I've always written plays for the purpose of getting something out of my system.

My father was a schoolteacher, and so I had the advantage of both western educational instruction in the school, as well as what you might call the process of imbibing the traditional processes of education instruction around me.

Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent.

Those nations that say it's a crime to preach your religion are making a terrible mistake. All they're doing is driving underground other forms of spiritual intuitions and practices.

I don't have the sort of temperament that submits to Christianity or Islam.

One has to confront history honestly.

An idyllic period of my existence was when I had a den attached to my home... a writing den, and no one had access to that unless they had their own special visa, applied for weeks in advance.

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.'

History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice.

You always assume for some strange reason that you need three meals a day.

Nigeria has had the misfortune - no, the fortune - of seeing the worst face of capitalism anywhere in Africa. The masses have seen it, they are disgusted, and they want an alternative.

The Nation of Islam provides an antidote in the United States to fundamentalist Islam - which is why individuals from America have to go abroad to find radical teachings.

Military dictatorship, you can focus on it, you can fight it directly. It's a band of power-driven people.

See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome.

In Africa, those who have money - businessmen and banks - do not believe in film.

I cannot accept the definition of collective good as articulated by a privileged minority in society, especially when that minority is in power.

I said: "A tiger does not proclaim his tigritude, he pounces". In other words: a tiger does not stand in the forest and say: "I am a tiger". When you pass where the tiger has walked before, you see the skeleton of the duiker, you know that some tigritude has been emanated there.

The youth should come together to challenge the status quo. They must not give up.

When I was a child, for a public/civil servant to be caught in corrupt practices, that individual will be a pariah. He will be a complete reject of the society; he/she could not raise his or her voice to speak in the public. So what happened between that time and now? That time when a public officer, prison or customs officer caught in corruption hides his face in shame amongst his peers, he just couldn't come out publicly. Today, when they come back, they get chieftaincy titles, they are received in grand style, cows are killed, they ride on white horses.

A tiger does not proclaim his tigritude, he pounces.

Be yourself. Ultimately just be yourself.

When a leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost and it makes the work harder for the rest of us.

Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.

To achieve any change in the minds of the youth, there must be reorientation in terms of materialistic tendencies, corruption and crime generally.

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.

Only 4 sets of people can vote for the PDP: (1) those who are intellectually blind; (2) those who are blinded by ethnicity; (3) those who are blinded by corruption and therefore afraid of the unknown, should power change hands; and finally (4) those who are suffering from a combination of the above terminal sicknesses.

I don’t know any other way to live but to wake up everyday armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.