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Quotes by South-african Authors
"One of the regime's most important tactics is the creation of a third force in the country."
"So how critics will perceive your film or your work, or whether your movie is going to make $100 million at the box office, or whether you are going to be winning any awards - well, you have no control over that."
"That's my life in there. It would never be possible today to ask as many questions as I did."
"We believe the currently one cannot speak of a revolutionary situation, just as there is no concrete possibilities of an immediate and comprehensive assumption of power by the people."
"Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter."
"Sometimes you will do good and not get an acknowledgement for it. Don't let that dishearten you, the world is a better place with your good deeds."
"It's not difficult in South Africa for the ordinary person to see the link between capitalism and racist exploitation, and when one sees the link one immediately thinks in terms of a socialist alternative."
"It's a general rule " a law of space, as it was a law of the sea in the old days, that ships had to respond to distress calls. Unless of course it places their own lives in danger. Bearing this thought in mind, as you can probably tell by my writing, my fingers are beginning to tremble slightly."
"To be better equipped for the tests that the year will bring - read a textbook. To prepare for the tests that life will bring - read a book."
"Teachable spirit makes you crave for more wisdom and knowledge."
"Great leaders make an impact with limited resources and inefficient leaders cannot yield good returns even with abundant resources."
"If my journey was so easy, I would have missed out on life's invaluable lessons. From misery I learnt to comfort those in tears, from lack I learnt to give to the needy; from uncertainty I learnt to understand others and from my silence I learnt to speak for the voiceless."
"Hey, I'm a girl, and we like to play dress-up."
"In the mind, in the heart, I was always home. I always imagined, really, going back home."
"There's only so much you can do, but if somebody doesn't give you a chance there is nothing you can do."
"It may be an extreme example brought about by abnormal circumstances - but the criteria of human rights kick in, surely, precisely when the conditions are extreme and the situation is abnormal."
"We do, and there is a law in the United States - the Torture Convention - that prohibits the United States from deporting an individual to a country where there is a reasonable expectation that he will be subjected to torture - physical, mental or otherwise."
"You always have this fear in a movie of just being somebody's woman."
"Getting back to the point, a guy like Jerry, he deals with the business, and he doesn't see it as being evil or ugly, it's what you have to do, and I mean I know there's some really ugly parts to it and parts which drive me nuts, but not in the same way as music business."
"What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another?"
"I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended."
"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great, you can be that generation."
"So I did that for a long time in my career, and I waited for parts to play myself just physically down a little bit. But I do feel like I'm at a place in my career now where I don't necessarily fret about that too much anymore."
"A strong person forgives even the most unforgivable."
"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison."
"Never commit to what you are not willing to do."
"I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying."
"It's to be a person who's able to shoot little arrows into sacred cows and knock politicians off their pedestals, to look out for hypocrisy, advocate for all sorts of things from social justice to peace."
"When people don't understand the meaning of freedom in their lives, they will continue to live as though they're still oppressed."
"For instance, we're always fighting amongst each other. Who gives us the arms? And then we become indebted to wherever we are buying them from - with what? The very resources we need to keep there."
"Age is getting to know all the ways the world turns, so that if you cannot turn the world the way you want, you can at least get out of the way so you won't get run over."
"Powerful leaders use their position of power to empower others."
"Leaders should never look down on the people who put them into power because every leadership requires followers."
"When I came to Johannesburg from the countryside, I knew nobody, but many strangers were very kind to me. I then was dragged into politics, and then, subsequently, I became a lawyer."
"I think today women are very scared to celebrate themselves, because then they just get labeled."
"I stand for simple justice, equal opportunity and human rights. The indispensable elements in a democratic society - and well worth fighting for."
"Contrary to popular belief, some animals would not have each chosen to be a human being, if they were given the choice between being what they are and being human."
"Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement."
"Chances are that whatever that you are worried about-be it a person or a thing-isn't worried about you."
"Leftovers are less tasty if they were left over by someone else, unless you are poor."
"Some women would not have contracted an STD or STDs had they not been on the pill."
"Everybody now admits that apartheid was wrong, and all I did was tell the people who wanted to know where I come from how we lived in South Africa. I just told the world the truth. And if my truth then becomes political, I can't do anything about that."
"On the other hand, one factor helps us that no other liberation struggle in this region could count on - our liberation front is characterized by relatively highly developed class forces, tested in political struggles."
"OK, well maybe I have to get back to Judaism. In the sense that if I look at me and my forebears forever stretching back to I don't know, whenever there's no sense of place and therefore no sense of nationality."
"The average adult hates being treated like a child, unless it suits them."
"When you are unemployed, weekends are seven days long."
"The pleasure or the benefit that the object of our deed derives from it is every now and then greater or even more important than the one we derive from the deed."
"There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man."
"I see the cartoonist as contributing to the content, being critical, because we do poke holes in some of the dialogue and find new ways of seeing things."
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