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Quote by Wole Soyinka

“For many playwrights, they write the plays anyway because they've got to be, the work has been started, it's got to be finished, but we all long, I think, to see the plays fleshed out on stage and I'm exactly like that. Yes, I'm not satisfied until I actually see it on stage.”

Quote by Wole Soyinka

Author

Wole Soyinka is a renowned Nigerian writer, playwright, poet, and political activist. Born on July 13, 1934, in Abeokuta, Nigeria, Soyinka is known for his profound social commentary and critical literary works. His writings span various forms, including drama, poetry, and fiction, often exploring themes of race, class, colonialism, and African identity. more

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“With theatre, you can interpret the most complex play on stage for it have meaning to an audience because you're dealing in images, you're dealing in action, you can use different idioms to interpret and clarify something which is obscured in the reading and of course there are different kinds of play, there are mythological plays, there are what I call the dramatic sketches, direct political theatre which is virtually everybody, but I find that you can use the stage as a social vehicle, you know, which any kind of audience.”

Knows Kind Different Play Use Action Political Courses Reading Social Audience Stage Direct Complexes Theatre Dramatic Different Kinds Vehicle Idiom

Author:Wole Soyinka

“I come alive when I have assisted in bringing out the printed word on the stage, you know, and I enjoy directing plays. It's a tactile process, theatre, unlike a number of other forms of the creative work.”

Knows Play Form Process Enjoy Numbers Creative Alive Stage Theatre Printed Creative Work Tactile Printed Word

Author:Wole Soyinka

“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.”

Humans Has Beens Certain Culture Process Understanding Creative Concern Related Creative Process

Author:Wole Soyinka

“I never know who's influencing me at any time. I mean, I can take a play by Brecht and adapt it, I'm consciously adapting that play, or, as I've done with the Greek classics, Euripides and Oedipus, and I'm consciously adapting that play. Whether it influences me or not, I think it's the critics, the analysts who have to decide that. Me, I don't feel that I'm under the influence of any such sources.”

Thinking Knows Feels Mean I Can Done Play Influence Source Critics Greek Analysts Adapting Brecht Oedipus

Author:Wole Soyinka

“My interest in culture generally is a comparative one, and I think that's where the word joy, I think, can be applicable. There's joy in actually seeing the relatedness, the connectedness of different cultures or recognising, for instance, your own culture in another or another culture in your own culture and feeling an air to all of them.”

Thinking Different Feelings Joy Culture Interest Seeing Air Instance Connectedness Different Cultures

Author:Wole Soyinka

“Mythology can be used, and has been used, even to re-state, you know, the very urgent problems of the world.”

Knows World Has Beens States Problem Used Mythology Urgent

Author:Wole Soyinka

“I rarely use mythology for its own sake because, as a theatre person, the mythological figures are in fact humanity to the ninth degree and Yoruba mythology in particular has fascination of being one of the most humanised mythologies in the world.”

World Persons Facts Use Humanity Figures Particular Degrees Sake Theatre Mythology Fascination

Author:Wole Soyinka

“The gods in Yoruba mythology are not remote at all. They're benign, they're malign, they are mischievous, like Eshu for instance, tricksters, rascally, fornicators, that's a similarity to Greek mythology, for instance, you know. They're not saints, they're not saints. They're powerful. It's why they're not tyrannical. Of course, a number of them are also very, you know, benevolent, you know, there are saintly virtues to be found in them.”

Knows Courses Found Powerful Numbers Virtue Saint Mythology Instance Greek Greek Mythology Similarity Benevolent Benign Mischievous Greek Myth Tricksters

Author:Wole Soyinka

“You have the entire gamut of human experience captured in the mythology of the Yoruba. This is what makes the Yoruba mythology a natural source material for me in my creative endeavours.”

Humans Natural Creative Materials Source Mythology Human Experience Captured Endeavour

Author:Wole Soyinka

“I do not believe that it is necessarily the duty of the writer to give a voice to his community. If a writer is true to his vocation, to his or her vocation, the very process of creativity enlarges these human horizons. It provides insights, even when you're not writing, when your writing's not dealing with a concrete political situation.”

Ifs Giving Writing Believe Humans Political Process Voice Community Situation Creativity Duty Insight Horizon Concrete Vocation

Author:Wole Soyinka