Novelists From South Africa

"As much as my writing is diverse and sometimes straddles different categories, it’s clear that placing any of my books under a section marked “chick lit” is patently sexist"

"In a country that has as many inequalities as ours, volunteering should be second nature"

"Flashiness is off-putting, but it is something that we live with amongst the black middle class – with people who made a lot of money very quickly. I understand the temptation to say, I started at the bottom, now I’m here, and I want everyone to see. But at the same time, it just puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on people. That’s why, right now, mental health issues are such a big thing in society – it’s not the only reason, but it is one of them"

"I think i just love danger"

"We can have the policies and constitution in the world, but if we're not working on these issues at home and school, then we're never going to get it right."

"If you re not surprised, how do you expect the reader to be surprised?"

"Living in South Africa, crime is something that is always with us, in our conscious and subconscious minds"

"Don't allow anyone or anything to make yo feel like you cannot fulfill whatever it is that your heart says you're here to fulfill."

"There is always that question: is this who we are as a society? How do we question our value system and what that means for the society we are raising"

"It was tricky trying to find the balance between the producers’ instincts on what works on screen versus the creator’s instincts for what their character would or would not do in a certain situation"

"The stories I write come from being a black woman in South Africa, the friendships and relationships I have had, families and what we perceive as love"

"It is them — because they are still buying my books and hyping them even five years later — who motivate me to continue writing"

"at no point in my life did I sit down in a garden and inhale fresh air, watch flowers blooming under the blue sky and become inspired to write about broken men and the women who try to fix them"

"February has always been a dull month for me, a dreadful period where I’m tired and irritable. My sister says it’s my mind rebooting itself. I say I don’t know and I don’t care because, ironically, it is also the period where I’m most creative."

"I’m the most known person who isn’t a celebrity"

"If the assumption that I’m influential is true, then that’s the one issue I’m willing to speak about, openly and honestly."

"In order to create a culture of reading among children, we need to make books accessible to them and write stories they can relate to"

"The truth is I would have been fine i it had flopped, because at that time I wasn't as invested as I am now in the business."

"It’s very difficult to adapt a book into a film, especially a fictional book where I have the freedom to do whatever I want to do with the characters."

"I have rejected many ‘influencer’ deals, turned down many celebrity event invitations (not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I know my limits and complications"

"There are things that you can’t translate into English, if you tried the sentence would be completely flat"

"So many things have come out of my writing journey and the risk I took to publish myself. The best one is the growing fearlessness about telling our stories as they are and using familiar language to tell them."

"I don’t have a sacred writing space, but I do write better after midnight, when I’m surrounded by creative energy"

"I don't think anything inspires creativity for me. I just wanted to write a story about black people."

"It is our responsibility as storytellers to promote a reading culture to communities, many of which are marginalised."

"I'd rather someone talk to me about the characters in my books than my style of writing. I wanted it to appeal to someone on a social grant, to someone in an executive office."

"The greatest thing about writing fiction is you don't know where the story is going. When I was writing Hlomu I became her - you internalise the character and you let her lead you"

"Sometimes I don't even like or agree with her, but I can't change her or tame her just because I'm not happy with her decisions."

"It takes guts, patience and a lot of hard work. I think anyone who is passionate about writing and wants to own and be in control of their creativity can do it. I used my own money to publish, which was risky because I wasn’t sure how well my book was going to do. It took a while before the money I made from book sales was actual profit. But I’m at a great place now"

"The fact that you have a gift that is different from a lot of people… that you can create things and the understanding of the value of that and what it can do for you. You need to understand what intellectual property is. Artists and creators, rarely ever consult an intellectual property attorney or ask questions or some of them don’t even know that those exist. So, you need to have that information. The research and the knowledge and protecting what you have created, there are ways to protect what you do"

"Reading opens one’s mind to different things and different worlds and expands horizons"

"I’m a romantic. Perhaps at a push, we could fit this novel in among the Romantics. But I think it’s better placed as Gothic though I’m not Gothic."

"I’m particularly interested in Balthazar and his study of the stars and planets, and the courageous way in which he challenges the status quo of the known universe."

"Sarah Clayton made a podcast with my husband, Don Pinnock, who is an expert on youth at risk. She was looking at the connection between the roots of criminality in childhoods where a love and respect of animals is not nurtured. Don introduced me to Sarah, and we agreed to work together to teach children, through stories and poems, to love animals, nature and the wilderness."

"Yes, I wrote these verses to complement each of the Parts One, Two and Three. Each verse places a solitary figure on a landscape and so sets a contemplation in place. But the epic poem, the one that appears in Part Two and then accompanies the novel to its end, I only started writing about half-way through the novel and completed it at the end. The epic poem took my final attention and care. It had to appear as an ancient text, with some parts lost."

"The book has been very well received. Our first distribution was through direct sales and donations to children and projects that might not have afforded the book. We are now preparing to reprint, and the book will go into retail bookshops. We are also working on an Afrikaans edition."

"No, this is not my first book for children. But the “ethos” in all those I have written is consistent. They all evoke compassion and care and are rich in love of the environment."

"I wanted to give a sense of: “Come with me and let’s look at some wonderful, natural things, and let’s have fun, but let’s also learn together to cherish each other and all living things.” So, the first “voice” belongs to Phoebe as she invites the young reader to travel with her, and the book concludes with her basically empowering the child to take care of the earth."

"Sometimes I just hear something on the radio, in a conversation, and then it captures my imagination. It then becomes a starting point for a new story. For example, a friend told me one day that she dreamed of ripe fruit. This is how Ripe Fruit became the title of one of my books. When a framed photo of my son fell off the wall one day, the frame broke while the glass remained intact. This gave rise to the short story Glass in the Frame."

"My favourite genre remains the short story, although it is the most difficult because one has to be able to say so much with so few words. Writing books is much more difficult than for the radio, but with the radio story you work at a pace again and you simply have to write every day."

"I write recreational reading material because I feel relaxed when I write. I never think about a specific target group or a 'someone', but just write for people."

"My childhood was full of happiness and fun," Dricky told Naln. "Playing pop, kennetji, horseback riding, and so on were daily entertainments. And in the evening in the shiny, white moonlight, we frolicked on the sand dunes. When the summer days were oppressively hot, I often walked through the green vineyards to the river. Under the shady trees as I gazed across the gently flowing waters to the sand dunes on the other side, which held a wonderful charm for those who knew and loved them, my first imaginary reverie began. In my imagination, I imagined many a Bible story so vividly that I was unaware of my surroundings. Later, I started writing stories, but I was very modest about it and carefully kept them deep away."

"There's always such a buzz coming over me when I'm on a farm. A farm you have to live. But you can look at the city, you don't have to live it."

"Writing can't be done for leisure, but for me it's a joy of life and I love writing every day."

"I'm just always writing, I think it's in my system. The time when I was busiest as a principal's wife with three children in the house, I wrote the most. I've wondered a lot how one quits. At a job you retire, but with writing?"

"I am a Christian and deeply religious, and life is a lot of joy and beautiful things for me. I accept each day as he comes, and try to make the best of it. You don't know in advance what will come your way every day. I trust only in the Lord, because He is always with me and not my strength."

"I can write at any time of the day or night. If someone knocks on the door, I can stop typing in the middle of a sentence. I can then sit and chat and when the gas is gone, just resume waar I quit. I don't have to wait for the inspiration or the mood."

"Personally? To be recognized. On a larger scale: less dumbing down in readers."

"Experimental writing inspires me. I get my ideas from reading, traveling, and talking."

"I went to a writing workshop with Lionel Abrahams."