"One day when I was 11, I asked my mother where did meat come from and she said from the butcher and I said where did the butcher get it from and she said the farmer and I said where did the farmer get it from and she said the cow and I said where did the cow get it from and she said – it is the cow! A shudder went through me! … I read a book about how humans drink milk that was meant for the animals’ young and I decided I wanted to disturb the animal kingdom as little as possible. But it was sometimes difficult to explain why. One day a kid gave me an ice cream and I said I didn’t want it because it had milk in it and milk belonged to babies. ‘You’re a vegan’, he said – and I thought he was calling me a nigger or something so I went to beat him up. He was yelling, ‘No, no, it’s a good thing!’ I was quite proud then because I was the only vegetarian or vegan I knew. … I passionately love life and I understand now how important love is to me. I really think about the true meaning of the word – that and compassion. If I have just one sentence on my tombstone to be remembered by it would be, ‘He tried to love every body’, with everybody as two separate words."
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Poets from EnglandPlaywrights from EnglandPeople from BirminghamMusicians from EnglandAnimal rights activists
Original Language: English
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"Interview with: Benjamin Zephaniah" by Juliet Gellatley, Viva.org.uk (2015)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Zephaniah
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Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (15 April 1958 – 7 December 2023) was a British writer, dub poet and Rastafarian. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.
12 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Benjamin Zephaniah →
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