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Wole Soyinka
Nobel Prize for Literature
Wole Soyinka: I began writing, scribbling notes, you know, in prison. But it wasn't actually published until after I'd come out. Writing became a therapy. First of all, it meant I was reconstructing my own existence. It was also an act of defiance. I wasn't supposed to write. I wasn't supposed to have paper, pen, anything, any reading material whatsoever. So this became an exercise in self-preservation, keeping up my spirits. It also, you had to occupy very long hours of the day, you know, not speaking to anyone. And I even -- it wasn't just writing. I evolved all kinds of mental exercises, even went back to those subjects which I said I hated in school, in particular mathematics. I started to try and recover my mathematical formulae by trial and error, and created problems for myself which I solved. You know, anything to keep the mind alive. As I said, it's an exercise in self-preservation. Writing was just part of it.
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Wole Soyinka
Nobel Prize for Literature
I began looking for my notes, the chapters I'd written in prison. Somehow they disappeared for some time. Because I had to smuggle the books out, between whose lines I'd written some things. So getting them back together took a while, and I could not find the documents. And then one day, everything came back, and I began writing Aké: the Years of Childhood. In other words, the project had always been there. I'd always wanted to capture that period. And so I wrote Aké, and the interesting thing was that I later recovered my notes, and almost word for word, the three chapters I'd written when I was in prison tallied with new chapters in Aké. An interesting footnote about the powers of memory. I mean, virtually line by line. Of course, some changes here and there. But it was amazing how the recollection came, total recall, for about three chapters, just like in the notes in Aké.
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Martha Stewart
Multi-Media Lifestyle Entrepreneur
The subject matter that I am really spending my time on has become an acceptable subject matter. Living, lifestyle, family, is now in the forefront of interest in America, and I've just stuck with it. I mean, I've been doing this for years, and I never got angry. I never said, you know, listen, I'm fighting for this subject. That wasn't my point. My point was to continue working in a subject matter, knowing full well that finally it would be recognized as a viable subject once again.
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James Stockdale
Congressional Medal of Honor
When he was beating me up, he was being heard by about 200 Americans who were living in cells three deep all around that area, and it was dark. And that was when I was brought out. They were getting me put back in the bath stall and somebody had a wet towel and he was snapping it. The people would think "That's his bath towel and he's just doing it." But he said "G." G, okay? Dom-dom-dom-dom, that's G. "B," dom-dom-dom: B. Oh, no. "GB," dom, dom, dom, dom, dom, dom, dom, "U." "G-B-U-J-S." So I got more -- I was more moved by that than many other things. Almost more than anything else because there half of the prison crowd knew that I was out there getting beat up.
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James Stockdale
Congressional Medal of Honor
As soon as I could I got my head wet and lathered up, I started with that safety razor, just cutting a track down the top of my head that I judged would make it impractical for them to take me downtown. He came back to the peephole and I ducked down, just showing him my behind, which is all he could see because I was stooped over, and then back up and again. I didn't realize that I was bleeding so bad. And then he came in and grabbed me, grabbed my arm and he knew he was in trouble, too. There was blood running down my shoulders and there were secretaries in the courtyard that we went by and they were looking. That was the headquarters prison of the whole country of North Vietnam so they had offices and they had everything you can expect. He took me back into this room and boy, those two officers, they said, "How dare you? How dare you?" I just got down in the position for the ropes and he said, "You have no right to take the ropes." I knew I was getting him screwed up. Finally they said, "I got it. We'll get a hat and we'll take you down to the press conference with a hat on." So as soon as they locked the door, I looked around for something else to do damage to myself with, and I saw the old toilet can that had been there for years, and I knew every chunk of it, but that was infection and one thing -- and then I said, "Well, what's wrong with this mahogany stool?" and bang, bang, bang, bang, and the secretaries across the hall wondered what the noise was and they started shaking the door. I didn't -- couldn't see them. But by the time they got back my eyes were closed and there was no question about it. They couldn't do anything and said, "What do you want me to tell the commissar?" I said, "You tell the commissar the CAG decided not to go downtown tonight." And they went out and then they gave me -- you know, then through that -- other times I'd used other devices.
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