top of page
.png){kind=small}
Quotes by South-african Authors
"Some people will insult your intelligence by suddenly being nice or nicer to you once you make it - or they think you have."
"Sabotage did not involve loss of life, and it offered the best hope for future race relations. Bitterness would be kept to a minimum and, if the policy bore fruit, democratic government could become a reality."
"To be called insane: challenge convention. To be called possessed: challenge religion."
"Shyness is a luxury reserved for those who are above the poverty line. To a beggar, being shy is deadly."
"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."
"The prime goal is to alleviate suffering, and not to prolong life. And if your treatment does not alleviate suffering, but only prolongs life, that treatment should be stopped."
"This was true, she knew. Being involved with him gave her the privileged position of knowing him intimately. There were nights when he would wake up sweating, the nightmares returning out of the blue after a peaceful period sometimes weeks long. Growing up in the middle of a fierce civil war could indelibly mark a child. To Mykl, birthdays were always just another year under the belt, where the only reason to celebrate was that you weren't dead yet. She took his hand, squeezed it tight and led him inside."
"Wait-a-minute!Reality kicked in after marking its spot `position vacant' for the short and pleasant while. He groaned mournfully as he found himself staring at the inside of his own eyelids. The first thing that occurred to him was the terrible bone-wracking pain running up and down his spine. Pain? No, curiously enough. It was the memory of it that seemed to hurt so much. Maybe that's what scared him. Or maybe it was the creaking of the ship around him."
"Prostitutes are paid for taking their clothes off. Celebrities are paid for putting others' clothes on."
"Ambition' is 'greed' rebranded."
"When we see a good-looking woman with a not-so-good-looking man, we assume that the man must have a good bank balance. When we see a good-looking man with a not-so-good-looking woman, we assume that she must be good in bed."
"A 'black' man who draws a 'black' person with big lips is called observant. A 'white' man who does the same is called a racist."
"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."
"You will have a peace of mind when you tell the truth and people think it's a lie, than we you tell a lie hoping that people will think it's the truth; because no matter how long it takes, either will be revealed."
"Many a man was caused to perish by something that he and many men cherish."
"With Shakespeare and poetry, a new world was born. New dreams, new desires, a self consciousness was born. I desired to know to know myself in terms of the new standards set by these books."
"The boring thing with 'No sex before marriage' is that kids will never get to attend their parents' wedding."
"I tend to resist invitations to interpret my own fiction."
"Being forever available to the rest of the world is overrated. I mean, what are 'missed calls' invented for?"
"The difference between a retiring man and a used condom is that the condom isn't given a golden watch to inspire the illusion that it still matters to whomever that has just used it."
"Wealth is relative. Some people aren't really rich, they just have poor neighbors."
"Most people do not want much. All they want is to be envied by most people."
"Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence."
"If the coach is good, I don't think a psychologist is needed."
"These deserters were our undoing. I shall have a good deal more to say about them before I finally lay down my pen, and I shall not hesitate to call them by their true name, the name with which they will be for ever branded before all the nations of the world."
"When you're really poor, everything you see is something you can't have."
"Fear is the greatest enemy of humanity, it paralyses tons and tons of people around the globe."
"Your thoughts were deeper than your mind, your little eyes pierced through the heart of your nation."
"At forty two years, Sona Kilroy stood tall and strapping, a powerful figure. Rising to the rank of Admiral in the Corsair fleet was no easy feat. It took intelligence, talent, determination, resilience, creative thinking, brute force, and sheer cunning to achieve " and perhaps also a large slice of luck."
"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."
"To love someone is to give her or him your entire heart and she or he should give that love back to you 100% as well. That's called two way street relationship. Happy Valentines Day 2017."
"I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites."
"You can't walk alone. Many have given the illusion, but none have really walked alone. Man is not made that way. Each man is bedded in his people, their history, their culture, and their values."
"Most parents are not really 'supportive' because they want their kid(s) to succeed; they 'support' their kid(s) as an attempt to avoid appearing to have bred a failure, or, failures - in the eyes of their peers and/or neighbours."
"The Doktor was very vond, I mean fond of Vluffy, so he gave him a flame-proof doggie-jacket. It was dull grey, but it had a tartan pattern on it. Vluffy liked his doggie-jacket and wore it all the time. When things went 'bang' he could just roll over, dust himself off and quickly scamper off with the doggie jacket flapping on his back. So in short, Vluffy was a very happy little dog who spent a lot of his time hiding under furniture. But the point is that he'd had a lot of time. Much more than those who went (up in smoke) before him."
"Back then: to be paid more, one needed to increase the number of things that are by him known. Today: to be paid more, one needs to increase the number of people by whom he is known."
"Marketing is so powerful that it can make even an extremely untalented musician a one-hundred-hits wonder."
"It is a sign of intellectual maturity to always crawl to conclusions."
"You have to understand that once an indictment has been signed, all countries that are signature to the U.N. charter will hand a person straight over. You don't have to go through the normal extradition process."
"Great leaders do not fear challenges, because challenges don't break leaders but sharpens them."
"Self-employed people work where they live. Entrepreneurs live where they work."
"Feminists who accept the claim made in The Book of Genesis, and, that God is a he, need to make their minds up."
"Words have an immeasurable impact, they can either build or destroy so be careful of your words."
"Because he has finally realized that it is it and not him that is loved by the woman he loves, many a man is jealous of his own car, house, wardrobe, or salary."
"The only things that old age comes standard with: grey hair and wrinkles. Wisdom and intellect are earned."
"Virginity comes standard. A good head is earned."
"Dreamers strive to live life to the fullest abilities and they fight for their dreams."
"We envy people who are extremely old because we wish to live that long, not because we want to be that old."
"Procrastination threatens critics' livelihood."
"Your gift of positive influence will open the eyes of many people. They'll be able to recognise their personal values which will lead them to live authentic lives and achieve the impossible."
bottom of page