"But now, my Sister-Mother, do I help him hide? Deliver him to the police? Get him a lawyer? Will that mean I do not feel your sorrow for your slain daughter? Am I your enemy? Are you mine? What wrong have I done you . . . or you me?"

"She was not robbed. She was not raped. There was no quarrel. Only the eruption of a slow, simmering, seething rage. Bitterness burst and spilled her tender blood on the green autumn grass of a far-away land. Irredeemable blood. Irretrievable loss."

"The sun went and died in the west."

"Yes, Mzukulwana,’ he sighed, ‘the biggest storm is still here. It is in our hearts — the hearts of the people of this land. ‘For, let me tell you something, deep run the roots of hatred here. Deep. Deep. Deep."

"Tatomkhulu was a fund of facts that, although seemingly different, made a whole lot of sense of some of the things we learned at school. He explained what had seemed stupid decisions, and acts that had seemed indefensible became not only understandable but highly honourable."

"One boy. Lost. Hopelessly lost. One girl, far away from home. The enactment of the deep, dark, private yearnings of a subjugated race. The consummation of inevitable senseless catastrophe."

"Mxolisi turned one year. A part of me hated him. Not him . . . but what he was . . . had been . . . the effect he seemed to have on my life. Always negative, always cheating me of something I desperately wanted. I shrunk; because he was."

"Unganyebelezeli, kuza kudlalwa!’ piped Mxolisi’s little voice, calling for daring and defiance. To look at him do the war cry of the Comrades, poised in a defiant stance, his tiny fist up in the air, couldn’t but send all those who heard him into paroxysms of laughter."

"Yet, even today we still laugh sad laughs, remembering our innocent incredulity. Our inability to imagine certain forms of evil, the scope and depth of some strains of ruthlessness. We laugh, to hide the gaping hole where our hearts used to be. Guguletu killed us . . . killed the thing that held us together . . . made us human. Yet, we still laugh."

"Now that the pass has gone"

"There are not enough mothers during the day to force the children to go to school and stay there for the whole day. The mothers are at work. Or they are drunk. Defeated by life. Dead. We die young, these days."

"Today, no one knows the name of the little girl found in a rubbish drum at the back of the butcher’s shop. They don’t know it today, for they never knew it then"

"There was nothing unusual about this. Mxolisi, now four years old, could already tell the difference between the bang! of a gun firing and the Gooph! of a burning skull cracking, the brain exploding."

"Instead of being kind and buying this and that for the maid, just translate the kindness to this woman’s wages […]"

"once the white child reaches the age of five and has to start school, the black child becomes an embarrassment, a visible reminder of the inequalities endemic in the society"

"She would fulfil her obligations as she understood them and provide for them. The only way she could be a mother to her children, she saw, would be to leave them"

"the morning paper, the Cape Times, carried the story of the child murdered on the beach. Front page, the story made"

"No,’ the girl’s mother said quietly. ‘There were many people there. Looking. Some were even laughing. None stopped the crime, none. Until your son arrived on the scene."

"“I felt that I could eat whatever I want, however I wanted and whenever I wanted and it was fine because I just had a baby,”"

"“I try to speak with my friends and my family, I went into therapy, and I use the gym also as a way to listen to my own thoughts. I spend a lot of time talking to my son as well. He surprises me when he talks about me or when we are sharing thoughts, he also gives me a lot of enlightenment,”"

"“I am the happiest I have ever been,” she tells me when I ask how she is."

"“I feel like life is good, I am truly blessed. I can’t complain.”"

"But now I'm happier, I'm thinner, I'm sexier. When my son was born, I was at my heaviest, and I wasn't happy, I was performing because my songs were popping. The only thing that kept me going was because...my baby boy. Being a mom has just elevated me ... I want to be fit for myself."

"The real challenge for the future is... how we feed people well and sustainably, and make money for everybody. There is enough"

"I went through a lot since Kgosi came onto this earth. I know a lot of people have been saying that I'm quiet... I haven't been feeling like making happy music. I have been making music and thank God that I can do that all the time,"

"The most fun is when you're a small operation and you manage people's expectations... There's a joy there of being really clear about what it is that you're offering"

"“Working with Beyoncé really did change my entire mindset. I realised that she’s in her late 30s and she is still in the game,”"

"... but I think few understand just what it takes to run a restaurant, keep a restaurant and look after 20 staff when you don't know what you're looking at... The conviviality of The Kitchen - I just knew it wasn't going to be the same again."

"I came to business as a creative... As time went on I had to learn how to make business work, that wonderful trifecta of having your systems and your creativity and joy and love connect in some way..."

"“I wanted to be active with him, I want to take walks with him, I want to ride a bike, I wanted him to watch less TV,”"

"You have two layers: you have all the people you're looking after and then you have all the customers coming... There's a joy but also an obligation and a commitment to this life. And ultimately it was quite exhausting! I sometimes had to go home salary-less in December..."

"“I don’t know if other mothers can relate but after pregnancy and giving birth, everything felt mushy. Everything was soft. It was like I couldn’t walk or move like the way I used to before,”"

"Allow bullies a stranglehold, they’ll have you by the throat!"

"A lie has seven winding paths, the truth one straight road."

"Where the water rules, the land submits."

"It isn’t until they reach the city that they come to understand the dangers of their country, and the painful struggle for freedom and dignity that is taking place all around them."

"Each morning the children had to pass the place of graves on their way to buy the day’s water and only last week another baby in the village had died. It was always scary seeing the little graves, but especially this fresh one now."

"The children finally find their mother, but their troubles are not yet over. Things are not as simple as they thought they would be. They have to stay with their new friend for the night, then travel back with their mother the next day."

"I do not think I was ready for it [going solo], but if you are someone on a journey to success you need to do something in order to move forward"

"I was scared at first, but I am just fortunate that I have positive people surrounding me who have always assured me that although I was leaving my comfort zone, I would still make it."

"It’s exciting and not even something I ever imagined, but it seems like a green light for me to proceed and achieve bigger things in my career"

"I’ve seen these people in the ANC who just don’t care about the issues that affect less privileged people because they don’t have to care,” Lesego says."

"I think the ANC can feature in those things even if they are made up of black people"

"If you’re a chubby or plus-size girl or whatever you want to call it, you’re the comically funny friend. You’re always going to be that friend in the corner who’s like, ‘girrrl’ or whatever sassy little comment. It’s irritating."

"The thing that helped most of their peers get out was business, medicine and law. And there weren’t a lot of artists in their spaces who were able to make the money they made and give their children what they gave their children."

"When I lived in South Africa, I was very nervous if people would laugh at me instead of with me."

"I understand being the first generation of black people who kind of made it out, my parents were very nervous about acting."

"Because you will speak up about rhinos or puppies – of course you should – but why can’t you speak up about black people?"

"I’m not thin. Being in this industry and being told ‘it’s difficult to imagine you in any role because you’re not thin’ was quite frustrating."