The tension between standing apart, and being fully involved; that is what makes a writer.
NADINE GORDIMERPower is something of which I am convinced there is no innocence this side of the womb.
More Nadine Gordimer Quotes
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In a certain sense a writer is ‘selected’ by his subject – his subject being the consciousness of his own era.
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Time is change; we measure its passage by how much things alter.
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About the joys and the courage, I really don’t know what other people think. I just know that I’ve never left Africa. I’ve lived there all my life. And one of the wonderful things, in spite of all the terrible things that happen in South Africa, is the way people continue to keep their dignity.
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I have failed at many things, but I have never been afraid.
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The solitude of writing is also quite frightening. It’s quite close to madness, one just disappears for a day and loses touch.
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Sincerity is never having an idea of oneself.
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Responsibility is what awaits outside the Eden of Creativity.
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I never talk about what I’m writing about currently, never. It’s private work on your own, no need or obligation to talk about it. Writers are made into performers these days, including myself, but there are some instances in which I will not perform.
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In a country like South Africa, writers have nuisance value, because those of us who have become known overseas have certainly helped to inform people about what life is like there.
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It’s absolutely fatal to your writing to think about how your work will be received. It’s a betrayal of whatever talent you have.
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People give one another things that can’t be gift wrapped.
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It was a miracle; it was all a miracle: and one ought to have known, from the sufferings of saints, that miracles are horror.
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Sentiment is for those who don’t know what to do next.
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The creative act is not pure. History evidences it. Sociology extracts it. The writer loses Eden, writes to be read and comes to realize that he is answerable.
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Certainly the people who are close to me are happier. They feel freer.
NADINE GORDIMER