Wole Soyinka Quotes

I don't know whether I'm misanthropic. It seems to me I'm constantly disappointed. I'm very easily disappointed.

The novel is born of disillusionment; the poem, of despair.

I do not write often now - not for want of something to say, but from a loathing of all I see and hear. Why dwell upon it?

I find nothing more depressing than optimism.

People don't believe or understand that a community can lose hope. You can have a whole community where hopelessness is the norm, where folks don't have faith that things will get better because history and circumstances have proven over 30, 40, or 50 years that things don't get better.

Nobody's interested in sweetness and light.

I have a grim outlook on the world, and in particular on humanity. Spent years denying it, but I am very misanthropic. And I live alone on a mountain for a reason.

I don't think the world is a particularly pleasant place.

I think the degree of alienation and despair is more universal.

Right now, they feel they have lost their voice, and their miseries have increased since my departure.

Criticism and pessimism destroy families, undermine institutions of all kinds, defeat nearly everyone, and spread a shroud of gloom over entire nations.

I do get cynical, but what can you do? It doesn't make any difference.

Pessimism is rife in Israel.

I felt like things could never get any worse.

One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.

Man, I hate to get depressing on you, but I don't have a game. I'm so alone, so depressed, so dark, no.

Cynicism, I contend, is the wailing of someone who believes that things are, or should be, or could be, much, much better than they are.

While one might laugh at the meaningless boredom of people a decade or two ago, the emptiness has for many now moved from the state of boredom to a state of futility and despair, which holds promise of dangers.

I shall never come to the Punjab again; it is such a hopeless place.

It is sad when people can't connect, and the sense of desperation that you feel when there is nothing to look forward to.

One of the key emotions a lot of people seem to be feeling is disillusionment, and what I try to do as a lyricist is touch on these emotions.

Sometimes it's hard not to feel really negative.

In the current climate, we live in a pessimistic and non-idealistic world.

The older books were quite light-hearted. But I think most of my novels do end on a deep note of pessimism. Shadows seem to be closing in. The final conclusion isn't that life is wonderful and everything is bright and cheery and in the garden.

Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it.