Wole Soyinka's Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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 greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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?

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

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

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.

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

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

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.