Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has disclosed that he enjoys wine as an alternative to drinking water.

He said rather than giving the necessary inspiration and satisfaction, water takes up space and he tries to avoid water as much as possible.

Speaking in an interview with CNN’s Larry Madowo, the literary icon explained that wine does the magic for him; either for sleep or work.

Responding to a question on why he substituted water for wine during the interview, Soyinka said, “Water just takes up space and you know and it belongs to other commodities. So, I am not keen on water. I avoid water as much as possible.”

“A good, robust wine either sends you to sleep right away or inspires you to work. You never know which way it (wine) will work,” the Nobel laureate, who turned 90 on July 13, 2024, said in a teaser of the interview shared by Madowo on his X account.

Reflecting on his literary journey and how advancement in technology has impacted his writing, Soyinka explained that he no longer writes on paper.

“I no longer can write on a piece of paper, except maybe scraps of poetry,” he said.

On how he’s catching up with advancements in technology, he said, “You don’t attempt to be up to date with everything. Because after a while, it gets too much.”

Soyinka added, “And the next thing, you have a machine which talks, and it talks back to you. I said shut up I am the one doing the writing, and then it’s attempting to correct me, what type of nonsense is that?”

Explaining how he gets inspired to write even at 90, the literary icon said, “I get my best ideas in isolation. And that isolation includes even being on a plane where nobody is talking to me. My space is total isolation.”

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