Quotes by Wole Soyinka

About Wole Soyinka:

Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Babatunde Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright and poet. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to be honored in that category.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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.

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

I began writing early - very, very early... I was already writing short stories for the radio and selling poems to poetry and art festivals; I was involved in school plays; I wrote essays, so there was no definite moment when I said, 'Now I'm a write...

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

Romance is the sweetening of the soul With fragrance offered by the stricken heart.

Wole Soyinka

The arrogant elimination of the Djaouts of our world must nerve us to pursue our own combative doctrine, namely: that peaceful cohabitation on this planet demands that while the upholders of any creed are free to adopt their own existential absolutes...

Wole Soyinka

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

Wole Soyinka

I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society.

Wole Soyinka

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

Wole Soyinka

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 a...

Wole Soyinka

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 an...

Wole Soyinka

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.

Wole Soyinka

I love beauty. But I like the beauty accidentally, not dished up, served up on a platter.

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

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.

Wole Soyinka

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.

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...

Wole Soyinka

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 l...

Wole Soyinka

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

Wole Soyinka

One has to confront history honestly.

Wole Soyinka

Author Bio

  • NameWole Soyinka
  • DescriptionNigerian writer
  • AliasesAkinwande Oluwole Soyinka
  • BornJuly 13, 1934
  • CountryNigeria
  • ProfessionPlaywright; Poet; Writer; Novelist; Philosopher; Essayist
  • AwardsNobel Prize In Literature