Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Forgiving is OK. Forgetting, never.
I come from a long line of storytellers.
I did 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for 34 years.
When I am offered work, I am very selective.
Shakespeare examines how democracy is built.
I am a citizen of the world, or no world at all!
I am known for always playing virtuous characters.
In 'Lion King,' the music is brilliant. The CGI is amazing.
Seventy is beautiful for me. I am truly, at last, an elder.
It dawned on me that theatre is a powerful weapon for change.
You can't always play the hero. You have to play the villain.
I spent 51 years under apartheid. I don't imagine suffering. I know it.
Apartheid is a lie, people can work together, people can create together.
I must concentrate all my efforts in the attainment of freedom for my people.
I was the generation who hated the white man, despised him, wanted to shoot him.
Everything you do on stage is always a response to something, not the next line.
When you write as an artist, you just tell a story and people say it addresses issues.
My grandfather told me our history through his stories about all the great Zulu battles.
You can give me any of Shakespeare's plays and I'll tell you a parallel African folktale.
Acting became a powerful tool for change. You had to tell stories that were important to you.
I believe strongly that the word 'protest' is no excuse for bad work. The artist must create.
Whenever I play Shakespeare, I keep thinking, 'how did this Englishman know so much about me?'
Working with my friend Sir Antony Sher is truly one of the highlights of my career as an artist.
'Sizwe' is the beginning of protest theatre; 'Nothing But The Truth' is post-apartheid South Africa.
I was 51 when I voted for the first time in 1994, and I look at South Africa through those spectacles.
My love, my passion, my everything is this continent of Africa. I have always celebrated African humanity.
I had to look at white people as fellow South Africans and fellow partners in building a new South Africa.
When I was asked to write a concept for a telenovela, I didn't underestimate my non-experience in the field.
All over the world, there is someone sitting in a cell because he or she is not allowed freedom of expression.
When the situation politically became intolerable within South Africa, we used the arts as a weapon for change.
'Sizwa Banzi' is the life of the black man. We look at it, laugh at it, re-examine it, but we do not change it.
When I'm abroad it's almost like I'm in a transit lounge. I'm only comfortable when I know the date of departure.
I started to get my doctorate, not to be called 'doctor.' Those are just little things you get to get recognition.
In South Africa, it is different. When you are born not even your father knows what is going to happen in your life.
I understood the whole purpose of Truth and Reconciliation, and I supported it 100 per cent, but I couldn't deal with it myself.
When I first encountered Shakespeare as a boy, I read every word this man has written. To me, he is like an African storyteller.
Protest theater has a place again. It's not against whites or apartheid. It is against injustice and anything that fails our people.
Art is universal. When works of art become classics, it is because they transcend geographical boundaries, racial barriers and time.
This is the problem I have: I write a play and I give it to a director and they say, 'I'll do it one condition: if you play the role.'
My stories are about humanity, about the challenges of surviving and the constant fight against ignorance, inhumanity and complacency.
Shakespeare's words paint pictures in glorious colour in my language. They were written by a man whose use of words fits exactly into Xhosa.
The only reference in my life is my life, and it's my life experience. It's my environment. It's my community. I've not made that for books.
I want my work to contribute toward creating a better society, toward bringing people together. That is always the first consideration, not the money.
We've got the right to vote, but what does it mean? People now want to have the right to a job, the right to education, the right to medical services.
I have been on the Urban Brew board for many years and assisted with the artistic evaluation of the various shows that were pitched to the production company.
In South Africa, we've been watching these movies all our lives - 'Batman,' 'Superman,' 'Captain America' - and every time the mask comes off it's a white man.
Every time there is a movie that tells a South African story, it is done by someone who must be taught the right way of pronouncing 'Sawubona.' Enough is enough.
Someone once asked me what I missed most. I said, 'My youth.' I've never been a boy who could run around, go crazy, do this, try that. There wasn't time for that.
In the global push to stop gender-based violence, men in the entertainment industry need to join forces with women to end violence by men against women and children.
We haven't got those dreams: 'I wish to become doctor or a lawyer.' Black people in South Africa have been barred in doing anything that would articulate their cause.