Censorship may have to do with literature; but literature has nothing whatever to do with censorship.

Keenness of hearing revives when one is alone.

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.

The solitude of writing is also quite frightening. It's quite close to madness, one just disappears for a day and loses touch.

When I was a child, we seemed to be living in a world remote from the rest of the world. But television has made a great difference to all of us. If something happens where I live, you see it tomorrow or perhaps even at the same time it is happening there. It's not "one world" in the sense that conflicts are resolved in the world. But we are more one world in that we know what is going on and are psychologically influenced by what goes on around us.

The function of a writer is to make sense of life. It is such a mystery, it changes all the time, like the light.

Can you imagine a writer in England influencing? Absolutely not. And in France? It used to be, but no more-absolutely not. France used to, at least, have writers as diplomats, but not any more.