I look at a stream and I see myself: a native South African, flowing irresistibly over hard obstacles until they become smooth and, one day, disappear - flowing from an origin that has been forgotten toward an end that will never be.

Age is wisdom if one has lived ones life properly.

People in the United States still have a 'Tarzan' movie view of Africa. That's because in the movies all you see are jungles and animals . . . We [too] watch television and listen to the radio and go to dances and fall in love.

African music, though very old, is always being rediscovered in the West.

I look at an ant and I see myself: a native South African, endowed by nature with a strength much greater than my size so I might cope with the weight of a racism that crushes my spirit.

I have one thing in common with the emerging black nations of Africa: We both have voices, and we are discovering what we can do with them.

The conqueror writes history, they came, they conquered and they write. You don't expect the people who came to invade us to tell the truth about us.