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
writing thinking play
Even when I'm writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I'm writing for.
thinking nigeria prospects
Let's say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don't think we have a new Nigeria yet.
thinking space throwback
Each time I think Ive created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space.
thinking sometimes humans
Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others.
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.
confidence thinking self
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.
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.