Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others.

I think most writers would like a quiet space, complete isolation, in which they control their own time. Spaces of creativity in which there's very little interruption.

I know there are writers who get up every morning and sit by their typewriter or word processor or pad of paper and wait to write. I don't function that way. I go through a long period of gestation before I'm even ready to write.

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.

I never hesitated, as a student, in embracing the necessity of violence. In South Africa, I didn't just accept it; I looked forward to it as a mission.

When I say war, I'm not talking about mental war; I'm talking about totally eliminating the obstacles to transformation of our children.

I cannot accept the definition of collective good as articulated by a privileged minority in society, especially when that minority is in power.