All Quotes

"The walk will encompass a lot of traditional activities such as performances of the Mokhibo and Mohobelo dances at the resting places."

"We are also planning a traditional celebration event on the night we arrive in Thaba Bosiu with Famo, Ntlamo, Mokhibo, Mohobelo and other cultural games played at the Thaba Bosiu Cultural Festival."

"We have come a long way since we started with this project. We shall not falter. The people of Gwanda have been good to us, and we owe it to them to succeed"

"although the renewable sector has a vital role in the country’s energy future, it is essential to address concerns surrounding the lack of baseload in renewables — the amount of energy available at a certain time"

"despite solar and wind technology becoming more affordable because of the technological innovation happening in the value chains linked to green energy, it primarily benefits households instead of the energy grid, as Eskom must prioritise supplying power to charge inverters during peak hours"

"Solar is becoming cheaper and must be used for distributed generation. In other words"

"households and commercial entities must use solar, not because it’s going to keep the system stable, but because it’s cheaper now"

"if Eskom’s financial situation improved, it would proceed with its initiative to install 11 synchronous generators across all its power stations as an alternative baseload solution"

"This approach is crucial for ensuring grid stability, as relying solely on wind, solar and batteries might not be sufficient"

"This includes taking all power stations as they are to use the current turbine for the synchronous generation to keep the grid stable. So, the whole story of shutting down everything to build green and solar, it’s a political thing. It’s not an engineering thing"

"the generators could be unaffordable for the utility, which announced a staggering loss of R23.9 billion for the financial year ending in March 2023, caused in part by a significant increase in load-shedding, a growing municipal debt burden and soaring losses attributed to criminal activities"

"Worldwide Olympian associations have long been formed; this is a great move by Botswana as it had been behind"

"the establishment of the association will bring former and current Olympians together, so that they take part in national duties varying from officiating, coaches as well as the technical aspect"

"It is good that former Olympians will not be forgotten because once upon a time they raised the national flag high as such they should be recognised whilst giving back what they have learned back to the sports community"

"My poems don't start from ideas, but from bits of language, maybe a turn of phrase that's like a tune that plays over and over in my mind. A poem can often be like a game in my head where I want to think about something I don't fully understand. Recently a child said to me, 'I'm not me. I'm someone else. I'm very strong. I'm Richie McCaw.' It's easy when you're four years old to play this sort of game. Writing is one way that as an adult I can take on a different persona. Some of these poems may suggest I live in rest home and that I have won the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship and lived in Menton. I did once spend a happy weekend in Paris, but I've never been to Menton and I have never won the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship. That doesn't stop me wondering what it would be like to be selected for a magnificent prize and live in a remote city. I also wonder what it may be like one day to live in a rest home.'"

"I don’t have a favourite genre. I try to ready widely."

"There’s almost always a book of poems that I’m reading and I keep it by my bed or in my handbag if the book is skinny enough. At present I am still reading Essential New Zealand Poems and I am also reading Horse with Hat by Marty Smith. I’ve also read some of Milton’s poetry, particular a verse drama called Samson Agonistes that for some reason I never got round to reading when I studied Milton as a university student. (Paula — these books aren’t children’s books in case you think they are."

"I’m reading a novel too – it’s called Concluding by Henry Green. It first came out when I was 6 years old but of course I didn’t know anything about him then. He was talked about a bit when I was at university but was never in any of the English papers I did."

"If you want to write in a particular genre it’s likely you’ll read that genre. At the same time I sometimes find that the books that really get me writing are a surprise. It’s not necessarily books of modern poetry that make me want to write poems."

"I don’t often feel inspired. I try to keep writing and sometimes something unexpected happens and I find I’m writing more easily and confidently than usual. It’s wonderful when that happens."

"Things that make me want to write vary."

"What I read is often helpful. Sometimes first lines of very good writers make me want to write my own poem almost as a response to theirs. Janet Frame and Anne Carson have done that for me."

"Sometimes being under a particular pressure makes me write easily. Which seems strange. Pressure might be a time constraint, like to write something in 20 minutes. Or it might be a set of ‘rules’, like ‘Write a poem that consists entirely of untrue statements’. I think the hardest thing to do is probably to be told to take as long as you need to write the best poem you possibly can about whatever you think is important. If there are constraints you can always blame them if your poem isn’t as terrific as you would have liked it to be."

"Walking helps me to write. I’m pretty sure Fiona Farrell has written about how how walking helps her to write."

"Yes, I almost always do this."

"I mentioned earlier that I always have a notebook. Usually this is where I draft poems and then maybe weeks later I read back over this notebook. Some things I’ve written look a bit feeble but often there’s something I can use and develop further."

"After a gap of time, I can often look at a poem a bit more objectively and see what needs doing to it. I would hardly ever send a poem I’ve just written away to a literary magazine because I am so likely to see things I want to change if I look at it after a few weeks"

"Yes, I suppose sometimes I do feel the opposite from inspired and can’t think how to begin or continue anything."

"Sometimes I find that to think of it as being like having a bit of a headache is useful. Okay, it’s there, and I can either retire to bed feeling sorry for myself or just go on doing what I do as best I can. But if I decide I am suffering from Writer’s Block and stop writing then there is no chance of my writing well."

"Michael Harlow once said at a workshop that if you write a word another flies to it. That’s mostly true for me. So if I can find a word or a phrase from anywhere and write it down then there is a chance some writing will happen. It may not be very good, but at least its writing."

"If I was feeling flat about my writing, I used to return to a book called Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg and it helped me to forgive myself for often writing rubbishy, dull stuff. (And it also has some really good suggestions, about daily writing practice that I found useful.)"

"I don’t think I can answer this very well. There’s no single thing that is particularly hard for me."

"I have learned to accept that alternating between thinking I have just written a Truly Terrific Poem and thinking that I am an Embarrassing Disaster of a Writer who will never manage an even halfway decent poem doesn’t help me at all. I’m gradually realising that nothing I write will change the world and knock its little cotton socks off, but also I’ve come to realise that there’s no need to be ashamed of what I write."

"Just keeping going, I guess, is hard. There are lots of other wonderful things to do. How do you balance these different aspects of your life? I’m busy, as most people are busy. I don’t write as much as I would like to write. I also need to work on regularly finishing poems and sending them away to literary magazines."

"Sometimes writing can seem a bit lonely. But having a group of people you trust and with whom you can share your writing helps."

"If I am given a chance to contribute, I will do that wholeheartedly although one has to consider giving first priority to young and upcoming individuals"

"Sometimes it is all about discipline. I believe that most of us could be making a lot money but the way we handle ourselves lets us down"

"Agents would only be associated with you because they want to make money out of you"

"Most athletes do not take their time to seek for advice hence they fall prey to some agents who do not want the best for the careers"

"He told me that I can be a good hurdler because I have good qualities that can make me go far in hurdling. A good hurdler must have 800m endurance and 400m strength. You need to have a good hurdle technique and rhythm. Mentally you have to be strong because hurdling is more demanding"

"During my schooling days I specialised in 100m and 200m sprints; Bolt was the one we all looked up to"

"Qualifying for the Olympics feels so good; getting to this stage makes all the hard work over the years worth every minute of sweat. These are my first Olympics and I do not have international experience so I just know that a PB can get me to the final and in the finale anything can happen"

"Yes it’s disappointing that Tisang missed qualifying for the Olympics but what I know is that he is one of the best hurdlers in the world and he is going to come back stronger. There is competition between us but there is no rivalry, we just push each other to get to our best. For me it’s a blessing to have him as my friend and training partner"

"We can't say DRC doesn't have a good team. We were sharper today, but the DR Congo remains a great football nation which we all respect"

"The team had a great desire to win and also go far. We made an error against Uganda and today we had more internal motivation to win"

"Our coach did what he was supposed to do. He said the right things to us. To be serene and have character and that's just what we did"

"I have always known I would be involved in leadership in my country. I have been preparing for the long time for a role in shaping the future of Lesotho."

"I planned to join politics in 2027, but Sam Matekane started the RFP with a promise to make a difference. People usually join politics in order to enrich themselves, but I wanted better. These are people who know how to be successful in business, who could have taken their money to other countries, but have decided that it is time to put Lesotho on a positive path. The people in the constituency approached me to say I should consider joining this new party, as they were aligned with what I was already doing in the community."

"My ability to relate to people is what has made me stand apart in the elections"

"My political opponents struggled to bring themselves down to the level of the people. At ALA, we were taught human-centered entrepreneurship, which means you have to build solutions according to what people need, not what you think they need. This has been quite helpful to me, as my political campaign was all about hearing the needs of the people and working with them rather than just making empty promises."