If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

Africans believe in something that is difficult to render in English. We call it ubuntu, botho. It means the essence of being human. You know when it is there and when it is absent. It speaks about humaneness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It embraces compassion and toughness. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.

Anywhere where the humanity of people is undermined, anywhere where people are left in the dust, there we will find our cause.

What is black empowerment when it seems to benefit not the vast majority but an elite that tends to be recycled?

We must not only speak about forgiveness and reconciliation, we must act on these principles.

You might have thought that a world such as ours, so hard-nosed and cynical and brash, would have very little time for transcendence, spiritual values of goodness and compassion, gentleness, and caring, but we actually do experience them.

I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place.