John Kani

“I want my work to contribute toward creating a better society, toward bringing people together. That is always the first consideration, not the money.”

“I have never been attracted to television work. Even to appear in series and soapies. I have always appeared in theatre and major movies, writing plays and other things.”

“If we'd lived in England or America we'd have told stories abut our lives and nobody would have called it protest theatre. But the reality of South Africa was the arrests and detentions and oppression - we could not escape that, so we decided to take it on.”

“I still remember the moment when my teacher, Mr. Budaza, walked into class and said, 'Today we are going to study 'Julius Caesar,' one of Shakespeare's most important plays.'”

“I write about the human condition, as a South African. I sometimes see South Africa with the spectacles of the past and there will then be a political content in my writing.”

“I understood the whole purpose of Truth and Reconciliation, and I supported it 100 per cent, but I couldn't deal with it myself.”

“Yes, we have the judiciary, the Constitution, we're fighting racism on a daily basis, but these are all state efforts and are not the efforts of the individual. The individual has to commit to change, the individual has to look at the past and take accountability of the past; for the wound to heal we have to dress it together.”

“I am a citizen of the world, or no world at all!”

“I did 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for 34 years.”

“You found during apartheid a strange occurrence from the white folks themselves. There were those who did make a choice to speak out and stand and be counted in the army of human beings who believed in justice. And then there are those who left.”

“I couldn't really say that a repressive society would result in creative art. But somehow it does help, it is an ingredient, it acts as a Catalyst to a man who is committed.”

“Whenever I play Shakespeare, I keep thinking, 'how did this Englishman know so much about me?'”

“We never deal with propaganda. We never deal with politics. We never deal with newspaper headlines. We deal with the harsh realities of our lives. We will only comment when there is more bread to eat, more space in which to move, time in which to open your mouth and sing. As long as these things have not happened, we do not talk about politics.”

“I will always vote. I have done so, ever since 1994.”

“Shakespeare examines how democracy is built.”

“You can't always play the hero. You have to play the villain.”

“Every time there is a movie that tells a South African story, it is done by someone who must be taught the right way of pronouncing 'Sawubona.' Enough is enough.”

“Someone once asked me what I missed most. I said, 'My youth.' I've never been a boy who could run around, go crazy, do this, try that. There wasn't time for that.”

“We've got the right to vote, but what does it mean? People now want to have the right to a job, the right to education, the right to medical services.”

“I always say my first break was a dead man's break.”