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.
Each time I think Ive created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space.
There’s a kind of dynamic quality about theater and that dynamic quality expresses itself in relation to, first of all, the environment in which it’s being staged; then the audience, the nature of the audience, the quality of the audience.
The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail.
Some of us – poets are not exactly poets. We live sometimes – beyond the word.
Sadness is twilight’s kiss on earth.
I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture.
Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others.
Let’s say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don’t think we have a new Nigeria yet.
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.
History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice.
For me, justice is the prime condition of humanity.
African film makers are scraping by on a mere pittance.
I have one abiding religion-human liberty.
The man dies in all those that keep silent.
Well, first of all I’ll say that I come alive best in theater.
Obasanjo has openly endorsed violence as a means of governance, embraced and empowered individuals whose avowed declarations, confessions and acts are cynically contrary to the mandate that alone upholds the legitimacy and dignity of his office.
I don’t know any other way to live but to wake up everyday armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.
One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer.
There’s something about the theater which makes my fingertips tingle.