“What I teach is literary criticism and comparative literature and so on and that’s my function, but from time to time it’s possible for me actually to help a writer. I read something and something strikes me then, I feel I can talk to that writer about it.”

I never hesitated, as a student, in embracing the necessity of violence. In South Africa, I didn’t just accept it; I looked forward to it as a mission.

Religion has really spawned some monsters. It always has, historically. Go all the way back to the Inquisition, you know, the Crusades, the Jehad and so on.

Don’t take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.

Be yourself. Ultimately just be yourself.

The youth should come together to challenge the status quo. They must not give up.

But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That’s all.

Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.

As a global citizen, I sometimes feel like denying my identity.

Intolerance has become, I think, the reigning ideology of the world today, the intolerance versus intolerance and it’s taken on lethal proportions.

For me, justice is the prime condition of humanity.

We all have our individual artistic temperaments as well as partisanships in creative directions. And we have strong opinions on the merits of the products of our occupation.

When you are looking for corruption, you should look at the entire stratum of the society, while some forms of corruption are direct, others are indirect.

The media must be used effectively to reach the masses. You have to find a new language in which to address the people and demonstrate what is possible.

I’m not one of those writers I learned about who get up in the morning, put a piece of paper in their typewriter machine and start writing. That I’ve never understood.

Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.

I have no money to give to you but I have ideas and organizational capacity.

I liked comedy, but didn’t know it was something you could do for a living. I actually wanted to be an attorney.

I do not actually DO these things, but I see myself doing them, and that is almost MORE satisfying, because I am also lying down.

I actually wanted to be an attorney. I did do things on the side like improv and sketch comedy, but law was my focus. I was a very bookish, academic kid. When I got out of college,

That she might not actually know us seemed the humblest thing a mother could admit.

I don’t actually think “true love” is such a good term because love can only be true. If it isn’t true it can’t be love.

I’ve always wanted to have a book published – it was a dream of mine, but the thought of actually writing a book made me feel really sick.

The Taliban had become deeply unpopular and were actually discarded by the Pashtun population almost as quickly as they were in the north. I don’t see the Taliban coming back in any way.

The ultimate freedom from the nonexistent ego is to see that it is actually irrelevant.