Without white South Africa realizing what it had done - and on the basis of that realization having the courage to ask for forgiveness - there can really be no significant movement. Athol Fugard More Quotes by Athol Fugard More Quotes From Athol Fugard I think the aloe is one of South Africa's most powerful, beautiful and celebratory symbols. It survives out there in the wild when everything else is dried. Athol Fugard powerful beautiful thinking For most of my writing life, I've refused to allow myself to believe that writing was a significant form of action. I always felt very uneasy about the fact that all I did was write in a situation as desperate as apartheid South Africa. Whether I was correct or not is a different issue. Athol Fugard issues writing believe Night-time is when I brainstorm; last thing, when the family's asleep and I'm alone, I think about the next day's writing and plan a strategy for my assault on the blank page. Athol Fugard writing night thinking There is a desperate tendency to try to legislate artists, to try to lay down rules for their obligations to society. Just leave artists alone. If you are a true artist, you will have a very finely tuned moral mechanism. Athol Fugard moral artist trying From early on there were two things that filled my life - music and storytelling, both of them provoked by my father. He was a jazz pianist and also a very good storyteller, an avid reader. He passed both those interests on to me. Athol Fugard avid two father My life had been defined by the apartheid years. Now we were going into an era of democracy... and I believed that I didn't have really a function as an artist, as a useful artist, in that anymore. Athol Fugard democracy artist years In South Africa, success never presented the problems that it presents in New York. In New York, if you happen to be the flavor of the month, a lot of nonsense comes with it into your life. Athol Fugard flavor-of-the-month months new-york My essential identity is that of a writer. Athol Fugard essentials identity Creativity is very selfish. Scandalously so, in fact. Athol Fugard selfish creativity facts I'm always in disguise in one form or another in my plays. Athol Fugard disguise form play A very close friend of mine keeps reminding me that since about the age of 50, I've been saying, 'I'm finished. I haven't got another one in me.' But somehow you do. Athol Fugard close-friends mines age You'll see that the strong, the affirmative, the positive voice in any of the plays I've written is that of a woman. My men are, well, not quite worthless, but they are certainly weak, and that reflects the reality I grew up with and what I think has in a sense shaped me. Athol Fugard me you positive men Nobody can take what I love away from me. I would like to believe that love is the only energy I've ever used as a writer. I've never written out of anger, although anger has informed love. Athol Fugard me anger love-is love With so many young playwrights, the true craft of writing for living voices is not what it used to be. They write for attention spans of 10 minutes between adverts. Athol Fugard true living writing attention 'Master Harold' is about me as a little boy, and my father, who was an alcoholic. There's a thread running down the Fugard line of alcoholism. Thankfully I haven't passed it on to my child, a wonderful daughter who's stone-cold sober. But I had the tendency from my father, just as he had had it from his father. Athol Fugard child me daughter father The toughest challenge I faced came right at the beginning of my career with 'Blood Knot,' which was trying to convince South African audiences that South African stories also had a place on the stage. Athol Fugard challenge place beginning blood People come to the Fountain Theatre because they've got hearts that are working and they've got heads that are working. They use the Fountain Theatre because it puts them in touch with the world that they're living in. Athol Fugard living theatre people world My life had been defined by the apartheid years. Now we were going into an era of democracy... and I believed that I didn't really have a function as a useful artist in that anymore. Athol Fugard my-life democracy artist life The act of witnessing is important to me; somebody's got to tell the truth, you know what I mean? Athol Fugard me you important truth Obviously when it comes to the question of telling stories about other people's lives in a situation as political as South Africa, you get to be political. Athol Fugard you situation political people
