Wole Soyinka Quotes

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.
Wole Soyinka

Freedom, Greatest, Criticism

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

Government, Nothing, Fact

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

Writing, Enjoy, Company

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

Power, Truth, Lie

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

Amazing, Human, Value

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

Work, Best, Learning

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

Life, Great, Home

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

Truth, Writing, Wish

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.
Wole Soyinka

Future, Depression, Same

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.
Wole Soyinka

Music, Struggle, Nothing

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

Words, Culture, Atmosphere

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

Down, Write, Lesson

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

Nature, Art, Why

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

Important, Words, Down

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.
Wole Soyinka

Confidence, Feeling, Through

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

Hand, Eat, Biggest

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.
Wole Soyinka

Nature, Quality, Audience

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.
Wole Soyinka

Power, History, Truth

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

Accident, Consider, Novelist

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

Morning, Writing, Learned

Looking at faces of people, one gets the feeling there's a lot of work to be done.
Wole Soyinka

Work, Feeling, Done

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.
Wole Soyinka

Mind, Human, Writing

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

Accident, Consider, Novel

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

Time, Long, Words

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

Tell, Writer, Methodical

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Biography

Nationality: Nigerian

Type: Dramatist

Born: July 13, 1934

Links

Find on Amazon: Wole Soyinka

Cite this Page: Citation

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