We’ve collected the best of the quotes we can remember hearing at the 2015 Franschhoek Literary Festival.
If you recall one that we’ve overlooked – or if you are an author who said something really witty and wants to be acknowledged – share your pearls of wisdom in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.
1.
“What’s the biggest mistake I see in my writing students? That they didn’t choose accountancy.” – Imraan Coovadia
2.
“If you don’t want your mom to see it, don’t put it online.” – Emma Sadleir
3.
“After I submit the book I have some hellish weeks. What have I done? I should have kept this to myself.” – Ivan Vladislavić
4.
“Life doesn’t do what stories do. Life continues. Stories end.” – Christopher Hope
5.
“If we choose not to write African stories we are impoverishing our literature.” – Henrietta Rose-Innes
6.
“I’d like to think my sexuality is one of the least interesting things about me, much like my head of hair.” – John Boyne
7.
“Only now can we start writing about miserable lesbians, as it is no longer necessary to create positive images.” – Sarah Waters
8.
“There’s swagger to Nigerian attitude which is great – see their soccer World Cup confidence. We need more swagger as SA authors.” – Ekow Duker
9.
“I see a lot of sentences that could have been written better in my books. But then I would never publish anything.” – Nthikeng Mohlele
10.
“Non-fiction as a category is like calling all the clothes in your wardrobe ‘non-socks’.” – Hedley Twidle
11.
“Writing is more than a compulsion.” – Masande Ntshanga
12.
“Banging your head against a wall because it’s so nice to stop. Writing is like that.” – Deon Meyer
13.
“Writers do half the job. The reader who picks up the book does the rest.” – Thando Mgqolozana
14.
“Nobody cares what people in Nigeria think about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels. Value is created elsewhere.” – Harry Garuba
15.
“When you’re young you hear people say ‘everybody dies’ and you hear in your head ‘everybody else dies’.” – Darrel Bristow-Bovey
16.
“Many black professionals, including the few who are here, are actually secretly indebted – we’re not genuinely middle class.” – Eusebius McKaiser
17.
“The only way you can be universal is to be sure you are very specifically local.” – Damon Galgut
18.
“Julius Malema is a mixture of Hitler, Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko and many other dictators together.” – Kenny Kunene
19.
“If soup kitchens are there to cleanse guilt and not to restore dignity then there’s a challenge.” – Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
20.
“Once people have been free to express themselves in racist, antisemitic, senile ways … then we can klap them.” – Rehana Rossouw
21.
“All my experiences removed geography from my world.” – Hugh Masekela
Book details
- Tales of the Metric System by Imraan Coovadia
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EAN: 9781415207239
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- Don’t Film Yourself Having Sex: and Other Legal Advice For the Age of Social Media by Emma Sadleir, Tamsyn de Beer
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EAN: 9780143538943
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- 101 Detectives by Ivan Vladislavic
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EAN: 9781415206904
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- Jimfish by Christopher Hope
EAN: 9780857898067
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- Green Lion by Henrietta Rose-Innes
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EAN: 978141520685
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- A History of Loneliness by John Boyne
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EAN: 9780552778435
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- The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
EAN: 9781594633928
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- Dying in New York by Ekow Duker
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EAN: 9781770103924
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- Rusty Bell by Nthikeng Mohlele
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EAN: 9781869142872
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- The Reactive by Masande Ntshanga
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EAN: 9781415207192
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- Cobra by Deon Meyer
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EAN: 9781444723762
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- Unimportance by Thando Mgqolozana
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EAN: 9781431409525
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- Literary Landscapes: From Modernism to Postcolonialism by Harry Garuba, Ina Grabe, Merry M Pawlowski, Carrol Clarkson, Johan Geertsema
EAN: 9780230553163
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- One Midlife Crisis and a Speedo by Darrel Bristow-Bovey
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EAN: 9781770227460
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- Could I Vote DA?: A Voter’s Dilemma by Eusebius McKaiser
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EAN: 9781920434557
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- Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut
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EAN: 9781415207598
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- Dare We Hope?: Facing our Past to find a New Future by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
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EAN: 9780624068631
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- What Will People Say: A Novel by Rehana Rossouw
EAN: 9781431420247
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- Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela by Hugh Masekela, Michael Cheers
EAN: 9781400083176
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