Quotes By Wole Soyinka

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?

My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.

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

I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.

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.

Even when I'm writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I'm writing for.

I consider the process of gestation just as important as when you're actually sitting down putting words to the paper.

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.

The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist.

But theater, because of its nature, both text, images, multimedia effects, has a wider base of communication with an audience. That's why I call it the most social of the various art forms.

Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.

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.

The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail.

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.

But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That's all.

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

The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.

I think that feeling that if one believed absolutely in any cause, then one must have the confidence, the self-certainty, to go through with that particular course of action.

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.

Very conscious of the fact that an effort was being made to destroy my mind, because I was deprived of books, deprived of any means of writing, deprived of human companionship. You never know how much you need it until you're deprived of it.

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

I found, when I left, that there were others who felt the same way. We'd meet, they'd come and seek me out, we'd talk about the future. And I found that their depression and pessimism was every bit as acute as mine.

And gradually they're beginning to recognize the fact that there's nothing more secure than a democratic, accountable, and participatory form of government. But it's sunk in only theoretically, it has not yet sunk in completely in practical terms.

One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer.

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.

And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.

Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.

I'm not one of those writers I learned about who get up in the morning, put a piece of paper in their typewriter machine and start writing. That I've never understood.

I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture.

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