Wole Soyinka interview

In The Daily Telegraph, Helen Oyeyemi talks to Nobel Prize-winning writer Wole Soyinka.

He laughs when I ask if his exile and displacement have created a need for him to be in a state of discomfort to see clearly.

"No, nothing like that; the compulsion to write overrides my difficulties, it's not defined by them. An idyllic period of my existence was when I had a den attached to my home... a writing den, and no one had access to that unless they had their own special visa, applied for weeks in advance." He smiles ruefully and shakes his head.