But when you're deprived of it for a lengthy period then you value human companionship. But you have to survive and so you devise all kinds of mental exercises and it's amazing.
Wole Soyinka
Related When you're a stay-at-home mother you have to pretend it's really boring, but it's not. ... AMY POEHLER Long-time viewing of Internet violence tend to change a person's temperament, making the person pron... YOU QUANXI If positive and healthy materials are absent, negative materials are sure to be dominant in the cybe... YOU QUANXI In a robust global business environment, our business units operated well in the first quarter. More... HARRY YOU The Board of Directors and I are pleased to recognize Peter's outstanding contribution to the succes... HARRY YOU We are pleased to close the books on 2004 following the painstaking review of almost five years of f... HARRY YOU There's two kinds of rock n' roll casualty: the one that has huge success and adoration, and... RHYS IFANS Sometimes when you are a great mom, you're not so great at your job. And then when you're go... GISELE BUNDCHEN I know it's a film and all of that, and it's a Hollywood film, but it kind of feels like thi... PATRICK MARBER Love hurts the most when you really love. Sometimes you think you're in love, and then you find ... BABYFACE When you're young, you don't have any experience - you're charged up, but you're out... NEIL YOUNG When you're making a film, you become incredibly close. It's not like you're filing away... THORA BIRCH When you're young and you're striving, it's all uphill, and it's easier to climb. Th... RON HOWARD Yes, the companionship is amazing. You know, you can get that physical attraction that happens is gr... VINCE GILL I'm still very much a believer in the spontaneity of certain kinds of writing. But then you have... SAM SHEPARD Acting's an odd profession for a young person; it's so extreme. You work, and the conditions... MICHELLE PFEIFFER You have a feeling when you're recording, like, 'This is gonna translate really well,' a... ZAC BROWN It's so easy to get used to playing a role. Then all of the sudden when you're tossed out of... A. J. COOK When you're up for an Oscar, you just get offered everything. It's fantastic, but a lot of i... HELENA BONHAM CARTER When you're out dancing with your friends, you think you're cool. But then you get in the ba... JOANNA KRUPA Sometimes it's just harder to remind yourself about what you're doing and why you're doi... ANDRE AGASSI You love the game, but it's hard to do the things you do when you're feeling like you're... CALVIN JOHNSON But I think it's more that when you're young, you're invincible, you're immortal - o... DAMIEN HIRST There's a lot more to see when you're playing and because of the advances in technology it m... TARA STRONG It's different when you're an actor and playing a part, but when it's just you, you feel... HELENA BONHAM CARTER I mean, you have a general tone of it but it's pretty much you get to come in and you're goi... DAVID R. ELLIS When you're on an ensemble show and you're messing around with everybody every day and you... PAGET BREWSTER The most special Slam is Wimbledon, of course. But where I feel the best is Melbourne. And you'r... MARIN CILIC There's an energy and excitement when you're building a company. You have so much tail wind.... HOWARD SCHULTZ When you want to die, you at least have a goal. You're aiming for something. It's not a good... MARILYN MANSON The benefit of film is that you're shooting something for an intense period of time - and then i... NAT FAXON You can have the greatest player in terms of mastering an instrument and you could be yawning your h... MAHAVISHNU JOHN MCLAUGHLIN Once you make a movie like 'Superbad,' when it's popular and you're the lead, you ge... JONAH HILL It's a funny thing when you think you're dead. You're not terrified of it anymore. There... DAVID LANGE You could engineer a human to survive the greenhouse effect because you think that's what's ... PAUL DI FILIPPO I think there is sexy. And then there's tacky sexy. When you're young, you can get away with... ANDIE MACDOWELL Then again, they're not scripted and I feel it's virtually impossible to be anything but you... NIGELLA LAWSON When you're writing, you're only a brain and some fingers, but drumming, you're involvin... MICHAEL AZERRAD One minute you're a developing athlete trying to get to the top, then the next minute you do wel... JESSICA ENNIS Life is full of trials and tribulations. It's dramatic when you don't treat people right whe... MARY J. BLIGE The writing is really hard. You're alone. It really pulls it out of you. You pull it out of your... TONY GILROY In TV, when you're doing guest roles, you're gliding into a zone where people are already ve... STEPHEN ROOT When you're offered things, it makes it so much easier to be indecisive. And it's silly beca... ALICIA SILVERSTONE To me, when people say, 'Oh, you're a freak athlete,' it's bittersweet. It's a h... COLIN KAEPERNICK It sounds so boring - and my brothers tease, 'Oh poor you, pulling pretend pints all day' - ... KATHERINE KELLY You're always in a box, and you're an escape artist if you do what I do - or if you're a... BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN When you're a girl, you have to be everything, You have to be dope at what you do, but you have ... NICKI MINAJ When you're acting, you're escaping and hiding behind something. It's cliched to say, bu... TAMSIN EGERTON Sometimes there's a sense of closing yourself off on a shoot, and I try not to do that. Sometime... BRUCE WEBER When you have really good writing, you're compelled by the actors who are in it, and you may thi... DAVID COSTABILE When you go to Best Buy and see a DVD of your movie, you think it's amazing. But then there'... ADAM GREEN When you're the opener, you're the guy getting the crowd warmed up. But when you're the ... SCOTTY MCCREERY I didn't realize - you think you are doing a movie but then you realize it's a Columbia Pict... CHRIS EVANS Freedom is the core of all human progress. It believes that nothing's given to us, but if you... CONNIE MACK IV All directors make films in individual ways. But the classical kind of view of filmmaking is that yo... PAUL GREENGRASS All the seven deadly sins are man's true nature. To be greedy. To be hateful. To have lust. Of c... MARILYN MANSON When you first read a script is the purest moment. That's when you can understand how an audienc... DAVID TENNANT But in a tournament, you can be said in for all your money at any point so you can't make any mi... AL ALVAREZ We're all caught up in circumstances, and we're all good and evil. When you're really hu... ANTHONY HOPKINS If you have money and you have fame, but you don't have any confidence in your blackness, then i... PAUL MOONEY It's the worst when you're kissing someone who's not a good kisser, and you're tryin... DREW BARRYMORE It's a difficult job to do, but that is why we do it. Only so many people can do it. But it, it ... BRETT FAVRE When you're editing, you're putting it together in a way that makes sense metaphysically. Yo... D. A. PENNEBAKER If you catch yourself wondering why you want more of the world and you're not satisfied with God, it... CRAIG GROESCHEL Sometimes you're doing really well, then, after three or four years, everything inexplicably cra... PATTI SMITH When you really study espionage movies, or spy movies, the beginnings are really set up to have, lik... JOHN LASSETER With a popular show, you know that there's expectations there, so that's a little nerve-wrac... AARON ASHMORE It's funny when you know you're playing two characters and you're aware of how you have ... JAMIE DORNAN Every day is different when I'm home, but mainly I just surf. There's no nightlife or shoppi... ALANA BLANCHARD When you're guest-starring, it's very nice, but you're there very briefly, and it's ... ZELJKO IVANEK Whenever you play dance music, it serves a function. It becomes a utility; you have to worry about t... STAN KENTON I sort of understood that when I first started: that you shouldn't repeat a success. Very often ... JACK NICHOLSON Anytime you really take a close look at people who are dealing with the aging process, you're go... RON HOWARD I think it's an extremely important factor to have your team together. It goes back to having di... LARRY DIXON People think that when you're connected with other people it's more painful. The opposite is... EVE ENSLER When you're young, you're always wondering when you're actually going to feel like a gro... DREW BARRYMORE Sometimes, when you're on the streets, certain music inspires you, and then you have a vision. B... WONG KAR-WAI I feel like you become a songwriter when you claim that it's sort of like a switch flipped, and ... CHARLIE WORSHAM 'Plum's are probably the funniest, but all the books have their own degree of humor. But if ... JANET EVANOVICH When you look at myself, I'm a coach, and that's what it's all about. When you're a ... JASON KIDD When you walk into a room, you assess it instantaneously, habitually, before you're even aware o... ROBERT IRWIN I do think deception... There's something kind of odd about tricking people for a living, but ul... RICKY JAY You see a virus very differently when it's caught and suspended on a slab of glass than when you... HANYA YANAGIHARA When you're a guest star on a movie or a TV show, I always say it's like being invited to a ... ATO ESSANDOH A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there's less of you. MARGARET ATWOOD There is a very difficult period in a comedian's career - it's that window of time where you... BILL BURR You get to a point where you have to start planning, when you cross that line where you have enough ... CHRIS PRATT Sometimes when you're in different countries, everything has become so homogenised and there'... WILL YUN LEE It's one thing if you live in London and you're rooting for Chelsea or you're in New Yor... JOHN MCENROE The truth sets you free. It's a very liberating thing, when you say this is who I am warts and a... GERI HALLIWELL It's okay to have fear - we're all human; it happens - but in facing your fears, you can rea... KATHERINE MCNAMARA And Shanghai is amazing. I'm a fan of science fiction so when you're there in the night with... BERENICE MARLOHE I think when you work on fossils, and you realize that a species is there, and it's abundant for... LOUISE LEAKEY When you're an actor in grade school, high school, college, whatever, you start to realize what ... BRYAN CRANSTON There is a need for aloneness, which I don't think most people realise for an actor. It's al... MARILYN MONROE Actors are observers. They're trying to have an understanding of human sensibility. And how do y... HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN You take a vacation to a place like Thailand and you're ready for the excitement of something ne... ED HELMS An Oscar means a lot of things because it's like the ultimate award for a filmmaker so it feels ... ALEJANDRO AMENABAR You know the value of every article of merchandise, but if you don't know the value of your own ... RUMI When you're successful, there will be friends, people, VIPs rallying around you. When you're... SURESH RAINA
More Wole Soyinka
The blatant aggressiveness of theocracies I find distressing, because I grew up when Christians, Mus... WOLE SOYINKA The scales of reckoning with mortality are never evenly weighted, alas, and thus it is on the should... WOLE SOYINKA History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accomp... WOLE SOYINKA I love beauty. But I like the beauty accidentally, not dished up, served up on a platter. WOLE SOYINKA I found, when I left, that there were others who felt the same way. We'd meet, they'd come a... WOLE SOYINKA A tiger does not shout its tigritude, it acts. WOLE SOYINKA Each time I think I've created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private sp... WOLE SOYINKA I am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wishe... WOLE SOYINKA My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to ... 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WOLE SOYINKA Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth. WOLE SOYINKA Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how... WOLE SOYINKA There is only one home to the life of a river-mussel; there is only one home to the life of a tortoi... WOLE SOYINKA Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie. WOLE SOYINKA Human life has meaning only to that degree and as long as it is lived in the service of humanity. WOLE SOYINKA The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny. WOLE SOYINKA I like my peace and quiet whenever I can grab it. WOLE SOYINKA The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. WOLE SOYINKA I am a glutton for tranquility. WOLE SOYINKA And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of oth... WOLE SOYINKA Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of... WOLE SOYINKA I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself. WOLE SOYINKA See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet com... WOLE SOYINKA Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the own... WOLE SOYINKA The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular,... WOLE SOYINKA A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment ... WOLE SOYINKA One's own self-worth is tied to the worth of the community to which one belongs, which is intima... WOLE SOYINKA We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where. WOLE SOYINKA But theater, because of its nature, both text, images, multimedia effects, has a wider base of commu... WOLE SOYINKA Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will h... WOLE SOYINKA All religions accept that there is something called 'criminality.' And criminality cannot be... WOLE SOYINKA An idyllic period of my existence was when I had a den attached to my home... a writing den, and no ... WOLE SOYINKA After the death of the sadistic dictator Gen. Sanni Abacha in 1998, Nigeria underwent a one-year tra... WOLE SOYINKA No writer has a right to make that much money. Indeed, without diabolical assistance, no writer can. WOLE SOYINKA Seven is the magic figure, because that's a symbolic figure of my favorite deity, Ogun. WOLE SOYINKA Probably to me the greatest singer, female voice, is Billie Holiday. And one of the most moving for ... WOLE SOYINKA England is the breeding ground of fundamentalist Muslims. Its social logic is to allow all religions... WOLE SOYINKA [It] takes a jaundiced view of the much-vaunted glorious past of Africa. And I suppose since then I'... WOLE SOYINKA It's the place to begin, always -- to return to home, literally. WOLE SOYINKA Obasanjo has openly endorsed violence as a means of governance, embraced and empowered individuals w... WOLE SOYINKA There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to ... WOLE SOYINKA My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a cert... WOLE SOYINKA Just like birds, hunters know no borders. WOLE SOYINKA Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me persona... WOLE SOYINKA I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence. WOLE SOYINKA The Lagos of my childhood was a well-laid-out maritime city. WOLE SOYINKA A tiger doesn't proclaim his tigritude, he pounces WOLE SOYINKA Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for ... WOLE SOYINKA One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer. WOLE SOYINKA There is something really horrific for any human being who feels he is being consumed by other peopl... WOLE SOYINKA I've done a lot of guerrilla theater in my time. WOLE SOYINKA We are moving towards a total mockery of constitutionalism. The president has crossed the line of po... WOLE SOYINKA Obasanjo has acted sufficiently against the constitution to warrant his impeachment. There is more t... WOLE SOYINKA My father used to tell me stories before I fell asleep. When the children would gather, at a certain... WOLE SOYINKA Suddenly the world has run amok and left you alone and sane behind WOLE SOYINKA an opportunity for Nigerian civic society, an opportunity for the Nigerian military, and an opportun... WOLE SOYINKA Let's say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don't think we have a new Nigeria yet. WOLE SOYINKA Writing in certain environments carries with it an occupational risk. WOLE SOYINKA I like to say, 'I spend one-third of my time in Nigeria, one-third in Europe or America, and one... WOLE SOYINKA We Nigerians must reclaim our sovereignty, our civic entitlements. WOLE SOYINKA The writer is the visionary of his people... He anticipates, he warns. WOLE SOYINKA African film makers are scraping by on a mere pittance. WOLE SOYINKA The problem with literature, with writing, is that it works sometimes in terms of correction of soci... WOLE SOYINKA And gradually they're beginning to recognize the fact that there's nothing more secure than ... WOLE SOYINKA There's something about the theater which makes my fingertips tingle. WOLE SOYINKA There's a kind of dynamic quality about theater and that dynamic quality expresses itself in rel... WOLE SOYINKA I began writing early - very, very early... I was already writing short stories for the radio and se... WOLE SOYINKA My father was a schoolteacher, and so I had the advantage of both western educational instruction in... WOLE SOYINKA Power, of course. The primitive fear of being controlled. It does not matter whether it is an invasi... WOLE SOYINKA the very least we can live with is an agreement that does not reduce us to slaves of imposition, but... WOLE SOYINKA