Quotes by South African/South Africa authors (page 5)

"There are only two sorts of people in life you can trust - good Christians and good Communists"

"The whole of that part of Southern Africa which is controlled by racial minorities is experiencing either consistent and regular guerilla activity or is faced with advanced preparation for its commencement"

Joe Slovo, Politician

"Some may seek revenge, but this is not our policy"

Joe Slovo, Politician

"No movement finding itself in this stage of struggle can operate by getting authority from the leading body of the political organs for even minor action that is taken and we don't even know in the case of the actions which have publicize whether they are in fact our people"

Joe Slovo, Politician

"We need to respond to the mood of the people - that we must take the lives of the other side as well"

Joe Slovo, Politician

"The ANC, we believe, stands at the head of the whole liberation front, the whole Mass Democratic Movement"

Joe Slovo, Politician

"No matter what vision one has of South Africa, the first thing that must be done is to destroy racism"

Joe Slovo, Politician

"However, the combination of civil resistance, of large-scale mass activities and strikes, with a certain degree of revolutionary violence, could provoke a crisis in the enemy's camp that would ultimately lead to essential changes"

Joe Slovo, Politician

"As for September 11, let us not too easily grant the Americans possession of that date on the calendar. Like May 1 or July 14 or December 25, September 11 may seem full of significance to some people, while to other people it is just another day"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"That has always seemed to me one of the stranger aspects of literary fame: you prove your competence as a writer and an inventor of stories, and then people clamour for you to make speeches and tell them what you think about the world"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"In order to be cruel we have to close our hearts to the suffering of the other"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"Strictly speaking, my interest is not in legal rights for animals but in a change of heart towards animals"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"If there were a better, clearer, shorter way of saying what the fiction says, then why not scrap the fiction?"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"I see no marks of Wordsworths style of writing or style of thinking in my own work, yet Wordsworth is a constant presence when I write about human beings and their relations to the natural world"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to follow after her, explaining what she means but is not smart enough to say?"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"As you see, I do not treat the creation of fiction, that to say the invention and development of fantasies, as a form of abstract thought. I don't wish to deny the uses of the intellect, but sometimes one has the intuition that the intellect by itself will lead one nowhere"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"The writers who have the deepest influence on one are those one reads in ones more impressionable, early life, and often it is the more youthful works of those writers that leave the deepest imprint"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"My response, a dubious and hesitant one, is that it has been and may continue to be, in the time that is left to me, more productive to live out the question than to try to answer it in abstract terms"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that right in law"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing about animals there is a temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather than immediately through imitation. Wordsworth is the case that comes to mind"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"The mode of consciousness of nonhuman species is quite different from human consciousness"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"In its conception the literature prize belongs to days when a writer could still be thought of as, by virtue of his or her occupation, a sage, someone with no institutional affiliations who could offer an authoritative word on our times as well as on our moral life"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"We are not by nature cruel"

J. M. Coetzee, Author

"Many of our own people here in this country do not ask about computers, telephones and television sets. They ask - when will we get a road to our village"

Thabo Mbeki, Statesman

"Gee, I am a complete Luddite when it comes to computers, I can barely log on!"

Jonathan Shapiro, Cartoonist

"I don't imagine Heads of Government would ever be able to say I'm not an economist therefore I can't take decisions on matters of the economy; I'm not a soldier I can't take decisions on matters of defence; I'm not an educationist so I can't take decisions about education"

Thabo Mbeki, Statesman

"Yes was a band where we could explore some of those ideas, but I knew that if I wanted to get into orchestral music and make a living at it, movies seemed to be a perfect spot"

Trevor Rabin, Musician

"I really love writing themes and melody"

Trevor Rabin, Musician

"If there's a golf course in heaven, I hope it's like Augusta National. I just don't want an early tee time"

Gary Player, Athlete

"I've traveled more than any human being who's ever lived"

Gary Player, Athlete

"Black man, you are on your own"

Steven Biko, Activist

"When will the day come that our dignity will be fully restored, when the purpose of our lives will no longer be merely to survive until the sun rises tomorrow!"

Thabo Mbeki, Statesman

"That surely must be a concern to anyone who decides this drug must be given to stop transmissions, again from mother to child, which is extremely costly and must be taken into account"

Thabo Mbeki, Statesman

"Well I grew up in England, and I was in the London police"

Tony Greig, Athlete

"Us investigators who went out into the field were faced on occasion with a lot of anger, by people saying why has it taken you five or six year to come and see me?"

Tony Greig, Athlete

"One tries to be an observer as an actor and indeed as a director because the small things, the give-away things are what are really interesting to a performer"

Janet Suzman, Actress

"But I think theatre in a repressive society is an immensely exciting event and theatre in a luxurious old, affluent old society like ours is an entertaining event"

Janet Suzman, Actress

"It's a terrific... you can't put it down. So I phoned him back and I said I'd love to do it. I went over to Paris for a meeting, and we just talked very generally about the approach"

Ronald Harwood, Playwright

Page 5 of 11

Quotes by South African authors