Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Babatunde Soyinkais a Nigerian playwright and poet. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to be honored in that category...
NationalityNigerian
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth13 July 1934
CityAbeokuta, Nigeria
CountryNigeria
art consumer literary literature pick work
Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.
artist wish different
There are different kinds of artists and very often, I'll be very frank with you, I wish I were a different kind.
art communication social
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.
art school writing
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.
months period placed solitary stayed ten year
I was placed in solitary confinement for a year and ten months out of the period in which I stayed in prison, which was just over two years.
acted against constitution evidence
Obasanjo has acted sufficiently against the constitution to warrant his impeachment. There is more than enough evidence to warrant his impeachment.
impossible moments pursuing question whether wondered
It's been difficult, and without a question I've had moments when I just wondered whether we're not really pursuing an impossible ideal.
The Lagos of my childhood was a well-laid-out maritime city.
peace whenever
I like my peace and quiet whenever I can grab it.
figure symbolic
Seven is the magic figure, because that's a symbolic figure of my favorite deity, Ogun.
cannot
All religions accept that there is something called 'criminality.' And criminality cannot be excused by religious fervour.
constant female life maybe
Probably to me the greatest singer, female voice, is Billie Holiday. And one of the most moving for me, I don't know why - maybe it's nostalgia, maybe because my life is one of constant partying, whatever.
fragment human individual share shatter understand war
A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice.
A tiger does not shout its tigritude, it acts.