I wasn't going to be one of those people who died wondering what if? I would keep putting my dreams to the test - even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.

There was a great deal of inbreeding between the Indians and the slaves. Genetically speaking, black people are some part black, some part European.

You don't spend twenty years of your life in the service and not have a warm, nostalgic feeling left in you. It's a small service, and there's a lot of esprit de corps.

Beginning writers must appreciate the prerequisites if they hope to become writers. You pay your dues - which takes years.

In the bush, trust no one you don't know.

In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and praise it.

I tell younger writers that indeed it is devastating to be rejected. You feel like the bottom dropped out of your world.