About the joys and the courage, I really don't know what other people think. I just know that I've never left Africa. I've lived there all my life. And one of the wonderful things, in spite of all the terrible things that happen in South Africa, is the way people continue to keep their dignity.

Certainly the people who are close to me are happier. They feel freer.

It's absolutely fatal to your writing to think about how your work will be received. It's a betrayal of whatever talent you have.

In a country like South Africa, writers have nuisance value, because those of us who have become known overseas have certainly helped to inform people about what life is like there.

Power is something of which I am convinced there is no innocence this side of the womb.

Mumbling obeisance to abhorrence of apartheid is like those lapsed believers who cross themselves when entering a church.

Writing is always a voyage of discovery.