I have often noticed that the need for cash and the production of a masterpiece just don't coincide with me. Money will hit me at a big off-period and genius will hit me in starvation, that is, I often get the money when I don't think I deserve it and have been lolling around for days and days thinking the most abysmal thoughts.

Bessie Head

Categorized in : Thinking Needs Genius

I am building a stairway to the stars. I have the authority to take the whole of mankind up there with me. That is why I write.

building stars writing

People with really weak characters cause an immense amount of suffering in the world. They destroy whole civilisations.

suffering character people

Love is mutually feeding each other, not one living on another li... by Bessie Head

Love is mutually feeding each other, not one living on another like a ghoul.

feeding ghouls love-is

Poverty has a home in Africalike a quiet second skin.It may be the only place on earth where it is worn with unconscious dignity.

skins earth home

The philosophy of love and peace strangely overlooked who was in possession of the guns. There had been love and peace for some time on the continent of Africa because for all this time black men had been captivated by the doctrines of Christianity. It took them centuries to realize its contradictions. ... perhaps there was no greater crime as yet than all the lies Western civilization had told in the name of Jesus Christ.

philosophy lying jesus

Most people live uncomplicated lives. They have work and quietly rear their children. There is an order and sanity about them that keeps the world going. There is an outer disorder and insanity about my life which makes me a victim. One of the disorders is that they won't give us citizenship here.

order children people

I might really have gone round the bend. I mean people who get visions and see a gigantic light descend on them from the sky can't be all there but if so I feel mighty happy. If one is happy and cracked it's much better than being unhappy and sane.

light sky mean

I write because I have authority from life to do so. by Bessie Head

I write because I have authority from life to do so.

authority writing

A discipline I have observed is an attitude of love and reverence... by Bessie Head

A discipline I have observed is an attitude of love and reverence to people.

discipline attitude people

It seemed to be a makeshift replacement for love, absenting oneself from stifling atmospheres, because love basically was a torrential storm of feeling; it thrived only in partnership with laughing generosity and truthfulness.

generosity feelings laughing