Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
Wole SoyinkaRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The creative process is interconnected, reflecting shared human experiences across cultures.
Wole Soyinka highlights the interconnectedness of creativity, suggesting that artistic inspiration transcends individual cultures and ideas. He emphasizes that all human experiences contribute to the creative process, often in ways that are not consciously recognized, illustrating how our influences blend and reflect a shared humanity.
Themes
CreativityHuman ExperienceInfluenceCultureArtistic Process
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the importance of diverse influences in art.
More from Wole Soyinka
All quotes →Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent.
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A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice.
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Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal.
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I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence.
Wole SoyinkaRead
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 SoyinkaRead
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