I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society. -Wole Soyinka Society
Each time I think I've created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space. -Wole Soyinka Time
There's no way to escape the culture that has evolved, from which we ourselves have evolved. Naturally, we stress it, break it up, reassemble it to suit our own needs. But it is there - a source of vital strength. -Wole Soyinka Strength
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 Home
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
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. -Wole Soyinka Poetry
The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular, have been playing for time in order to conclude its mission of ethnic cleansing in the Sudan. -Wole Soyinka Government
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
Each time I think I've created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space. -Wole Soyinka Space
Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of a community can be, a hero always emerges. Although no one can dare claim that it is now a perfect state, and that no more work is needed, Rwanda has risen from the ashes as a model or truth and reconciliation. -Wole Soyinka Hope
And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others. -Wole Soyinka Learning
Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake. -Wole Soyinka Art
Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie. -Wole Soyinka Power
My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a certain point, the human point in which everything is related to one another. That has been my creative experience. I never know who's influencing me at any time. -Wole Soyinka Time
Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie. -Wole Soyinka Truth
Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth. -Wole Soyinka Truth
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
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
There is something really horrific for any human being who feels he is being consumed by other people. I'm talking about a writer's critics, who don't address what you've written, but want to probe into your existence and magnify the trivia of your life without any sense of humor, without any sense of context. -Wole Soyinka Humor
