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
excessive taken time
An excessive amount of my time is taken with political involvement. It's unavoidable; that's my temperament.
taken thinking names
Well, I think the Yoruba gods are truthful. Truthful in the sense that i consider religion and the construct of deities simply an extension of human qualities taken, if you like, to the nth degree. i mistrust gods who become so separated from humanity that enormous crimes can be committed in their names. i prefer gods who can be brought down to earth and judged, if you like.
taken care facts
You cannot live a normal existence if you haven't taken care of a problem that affects your life and affects the lives of others, values that you hold which in fact define your very existence.
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.
assault becomes community connected darfur family happens human humanity tied worth
One's own self-worth is tied to the worth of the community to which one belongs, which is intimately connected to humanity in general. What happens in Darfur becomes an assault on my own community, and on me as an individual. That's what the human family is all about.