Wole Soyinka quotes - page 4

I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence. (Wole Soyinka)

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

Wole Soyinka

Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.

Wole Soyinka

We Nigerians must reclaim our sovereignty, our civic entitlements.

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

No human is completely fearless.

Wole Soyinka

No writer has a right to make that much money. Indeed, without diabolical assistance, no writer can.

Wole Soyinka

Just like birds, hunters know no borders.

Wole Soyinka

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

Wole Soyinka

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. (Wole Soyinka)

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

Wole Soyinka

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

Wole Soyinka

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

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of a community can be, a hero always emerges. Although no one can dare claim that it is now a perfect state, and that no more work is needed, Rwanda has risen from the ashes as a model or truth and reconciliation.

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

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. (Wole Soyinka)

You accept whoever you are interacting with, directly, or indirectly.

Wole Soyinka

Be yourself. Ultimately just be yourself.

Wole Soyinka

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

Arts and the Sciences are a natural symbiosis. They stem from the same human existential impulse - exploration. Exploration of what lies beneath the surface, and re-confuguration of elements of what we call reality.

Wole Soyinka

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