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" 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
Existence
Home
Writing
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" I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself. "
Wole Soyinka
About
Fond
Like
" 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. "
Wole Soyinka
Now
Right
You
" 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. "
Wole Soyinka
Life
Humor
You
" 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. "
Wole Soyinka
Living
Justice
Rest
" One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer. "
Wole Soyinka
Am
I Am
I Can
" The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail. "
Wole Soyinka
Eat
Bottom
Will
" We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where. "
Wole Soyinka
World
Where
Matter
" Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal. "
Wole Soyinka
Growth
True
People
" Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent. "
Wole Soyinka
History
World
Together
" I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture. "
Wole Soyinka
Words
Where
Up
" 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
Truth
Now
Community
" I've done a lot of guerrilla theater in my time. "
Wole Soyinka
Time
Theater
My Time
" 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
Nothing
More
Government
" 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 writer.' I've always been a writer. "
Wole Soyinka
Poetry
Art
School
" I like to say, 'I spend one-third of my time in Nigeria, one-third in Europe or America, and one-third on a plane.' "
Wole Soyinka
America
Europe
Time
" I'm not sure I'm trying to communicate a message. I'm just trying to be part of the movement away from the unacceptable present. "
Wole Soyinka
Message
Trying
Present
" 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
Capitalism
Africa
Seeing
" 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? "
Wole Soyinka
Home
Great
World
" We Nigerians must reclaim our sovereignty, our civic entitlements. "
Wole Soyinka
Must
Our
Reclaim
" 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
Father
Me
Process
" The phenomenon of creativity, we know, is closely related to the ability to yoke together separate, and even seemingly incompatible, matrices. "
Wole Soyinka
Know
Together
Creativity
" Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer space. "
Wole Soyinka
Dictatorship
Nation
Outer Space
" I've always written plays for the purpose of getting something out of my system. "
Wole Soyinka
System
Purpose
Out
" Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the ownership of land. "
Wole Soyinka
Greatest
Land
Mexico
" I am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wished we'd never smelled the fumes of petroleum. "
Wole Soyinka
Oil
Never
More
" 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. "
Wole Soyinka
Me
Process
Time
" 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. "
Wole Soyinka
Start
Writing
Paper
" Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped. "
Wole Soyinka
Walk
Black
Lost
" But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That's all. "
Wole Soyinka
Write
Just
Lesson
" A tiger does not shout its tigritude, it acts. "
Wole Soyinka
Does
Shout
Tiger