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
violence students accepting
I never hesitated, as a student, in embracing the necessity of violence. In South Africa, I didn't just accept it; I looked forward to it as a mission.
sometimes poet
Some of us – poets are not exactly poets. We live sometimes – beyond the word.
our-world ideas peaceful
The arrogant elimination of the Djaouts of our world must nerve us to pursue our own combative doctrine, namely: that peaceful cohabitation on this planet demands that while the upholders of any creed are free to adopt their own existential absolutes, the right of others to do the same is thereby rendered implicit and sacrosanct. Thus the creed of inquiry, of knowledge and exchange of ideas, must be upheld as an absolute, as ancient and eternal as any other.
definitions minorities accepting
I cannot accept the definition of collective good as articulated by a privileged minority in society, especially when that minority is in power.
novelists accidents
I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident.
skeletons forests doe
I said: "A tiger does not proclaim his tigritude, he pounces". In other words: a tiger does not stand in the forest and say: "I am a tiger". When you pass where the tiger has walked before, you see the skeleton of the duiker, you know that some tigritude has been emanated there.
party believe fighting
It's my duty to fight those who have chosen to belong to the party of death, those who say they receive their orders from God somewhere and believe they have a duty to set the world on fire to achieve their own salvation.
i-can methodical one-thing
One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer.
tranquility
I am a glutton for tranquility.
aggravation novelists be-considerate
The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist.
paris black yards
Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped.
depression way pessimism
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.
mountain cracks aids
We do not ask the mountain's aid to crack a walnut.
faces violence looks
I can look violence in the face and either reject or accept it.