A child understands fear, and the hurt and hate it brings.

I decided that I wanted nothing to do with South African government television while any of my fellow writers were banned and couldn't speak publicly.

You can't be afraid to do good in case evil results.

From Ernest Hemingway's stories I learned to listen within my stories for what went unsaid by my characters.

what a writer does is to try to make sense of life. I think that's what writing is, I think that's what painting is. It's seeking that thread of order and logic in the disorder, and the incredible waste and marvelous profligate character of life. What all artists are trying to do is to make sense of life.

It was a miracle; it was all a miracle: and one ought to have known, from the sufferings of saints, that miracles are horror.

The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.