journalists-from-south-africa

"Historical novels show us how the origins of many present-day problems lie in the past; they are vehicles for the necessary journeys that nations must take to be healed; they help us reimagine ourselves in the present day"

"Writing a novel is like running a marathon"

"We’re a country that is trying to find itself as a nation. We are not a nation"

"If we don’t resolve the issue of land redistribution decisively, and in a manner that takes full cognisance of the extent to which the majority was robbed, it may come to haunt us. It happened to our neighbour, Zimbabwe."

"As a novelist, I am concerned with the ways in which communities transform their historical experience into the symbolic terms of myth, and then use mythologised narratives of the past to organise their responses to real-world, present-day crises and events"

"systematically and deliberately tackle heavy subjects in my writing"

"Migration impacted the lives of black people a lot in South Africa – forced migration – because it was always against our own will"

"You have to be very careful as you are writing. Not too much preaching or teaching at the expense of entertainment. At the same time, you don’t want to be superficial."

"Being that young, I had to navigate the precarious space of being a colleague to these men, but also to be a child to them. When they were wrong on editorial matters, it was difficult for me to categorically tell them they were incorrect. I had to find euphemisms to put my points across. I didn’t always succeed"

"My job as a novelist is to record what happened back then, but to also raise a flag, to caution that the country still has some unfinished business"

"The South African publishing industry is still largely in white hands."

"Post-apartheid South Africa has failed to take advantage of the goodwill of the world and harness African solidarity"

"the people who colonized us used religion as an excuse, as an entry point, into this country."

"If you are a human being the huge ethical debates will rest with you in the snarling loneliness of midnight"

"If you go to a Catholic Church in South Africa, it’s a far cry from what you are familiar with in France or Europe"

"Every writer enjoys a challenge that plunges him or her into uncharted waters"

"We pretend that queerness or homosexuality is a new phenomenon. It’s always been there. It’s there in our songs and historical books but it’s something that we’re, like, ashamed of"

"If I want to tell a story successfully in a manner that is going to grab my readers, I have to be competitive, I can’t write as if I’m writing back in the 1960s"

"I am not a reporter, I write opinions"

"fiction projects today’s reality into the future much better than nonfiction"

"Contrary to popular belief, writing a short story is more difficult than writing a novel. A short story needs a clear focus, from beginning to end. In a novel there can be unnecessary deviations — which you can’t afford in a short story"

"Historical fiction can be a powerful tool in the hands of a writer who is also an activist"

"So they used religion – Christianity to be more specific – to deceive us"

"I have realised that the so called writer's block comes when the writing muscle does not get exercised as often as it should be"

"We dance! This is Africa"

"the priests have been guilty of many, many things in their private capacity, not as representative of the church per se – you know, the child abuse and all those things"

"There are not enough hours in the day to explore the lives of men and women in their daily struggles with poverty, hunger and disease"

"Home and exile are not geographic places"

"Storytellers will never go out of business. It’s all a work in progress. An egg waiting to be hatched."

"It is enough to have imagined, but it helps to have lived through the circumstances"

"It is my belief that in accepting Mandela in all his complex configurations, we can start coming to terms with the kind of greatness we are collectively capable of reaching"

"The new buzzword is ‘erasure’ and it is my belief that great people, especially if they stand for ideals that are inimical to the interests of the powerful, are erased via misinterpretation"

"Certain chroniclers of our past have pushed out of the frame the little man and woman whose contribution towards the creation of a democratic South Africa was immeasurable"

"In our haste to promote an unproblematic and amnesiac Rainbow Nation, we have rewarded murderers with medals and even loosed some of them to speak for us in exalted councils"

"I still believe that the liberation theology movement did make an impact"

"Yes. Christianity, to many black people – especially in KZN1 which was then Natal or Zululand – was an escape"

"another stereotype – at least in contemporary society – that is associated with queer men, is that they are more feminine, which again is not true"

"I wanted to explore black people’s presence in the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa. Because in all the texts that I’ve read, both nonfiction and fiction, black people are absent, so I wanted to bring that"

"I’ve seen some historical novelists playing with facts, that is just distasteful, disrespectful as to history"

"I find it works to draw people because history can be intimidating. But if you infuse it with some humor, it becomes more palatable in a way"

"We have yet to formulate or to forge a common identity that says “South Africa""

"If you were a foreigner coming to South Africa, and you read the books, you will think black people do not exist"

"South African history, particularly that which has been forgotten or generally unknown, into the forefront so that it may not disappear into the past…to reignite unfinished conversations around issues of race, identity and land, for example"

"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"

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

"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"

"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."

"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."

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

"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"