Top 92 Quotes & Sayings by John Kani

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

Seventy is beautiful for me. I am truly, at last, an elder.

My stories are about humanity, about the challenges of surviving and the constant fight against ignorance, inhumanity and complacency.

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 spent 51 years under apartheid. I don't imagine suffering. I know it.

The exchange rate of the Rand against the dollar, pound or euro makes South Africa an attractive location. The positive side of this is it gives our artists and technicians an opportunity to work.

When western culture developed, we became detached from nature, detached from our relationship with the animals. We saw animals perhaps as only the rhino horn, the elephant's tusk, we saw it as making money.

Protest theater has a place again. It's not against whites or apartheid. It is against injustice and anything that fails our people.

Shakespeare's words paint pictures in glorious colour in my language. They were written by a man whose use of words fits exactly into Xhosa.

When I first encountered Shakespeare as a boy, I read every word this man has written. To me, he is like an African storyteller.

Acting became a powerful tool for change. You had to tell stories that were important to you.

I have been on the Urban Brew board for many years and assisted with the artistic evaluation of the various shows that were pitched to the production company.

Shakespeare examines how democracy is built.

Other theaters exist here solely to entertain the white audience and keep South Africa on a par with what's going on in the West End or Broadway. The Market concerns itself with theater of this country, for this country.

Everything you do on stage is always a response to something, not the next line.

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 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.'

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

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.

The only reference in my life is my life, and it's my life experience. It's my environment. It's my community. I've not made that for books.

That's the beauty of art: art is universal.

A telenovela is a story that's like a soapie, but it has a beginning, middle and an end.

We have to depoliticise our youth. We have to teach our youth that the word 'government' means them, it's something to feel pride in, not something to attack.

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.

'Sizwa Banzi' is the life of the black man. We look at it, laugh at it, re-examine it, but we do not change it.

All over the world, there is someone sitting in a cell because he or she is not allowed freedom of expression.

This is the problem I have: I write a play and I give it to a director and they say, 'I'll do it one condition: if you play the role.'

'Sizwe' is the beginning of protest theatre; 'Nothing But The Truth' is post-apartheid South Africa.

It dawned on me that theatre is a powerful weapon for change.

Any older actor knows the last great mountain to climb is to play King Lear and now, if I ever play Lear, I will have done the pre-preparation because I had to go into the play and read it over and over again.

In South Africa, we've been watching these movies all our lives - 'Batman,' 'Superman,' 'Captain America' - and every time the mask comes off it's a white man.

Forgiving is OK. Forgetting, never.

I'd read Shakespeare in school, translated into isiXhosa, and loved the stories, but I hadn't realised before I started reading the English text how powerful the language was - the great surging speeches Othello has.

In South Africa, it is different. When you are born not even your father knows what is going to happen in your life.

It is ridiculous to think we can erase racism in South Africa, but through theater there can be a genuine attempt to move on with our lives and build a better country.

When you write as an artist, you just tell a story and people say it addresses issues.

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.

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

Before 1994, many South Africans used theater as a voice of protest against the government. But with the end of apartheid, like the artists who watched the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe, theater had to find new voices and search for new issues.

When I tried to do 'Waiting for Godot, it was such a controversy. I was tired of political theatre. All I wanted to do was 'Godot.' You know what happened? We were told we had messed up and politicised a classic that has nothing to do with S.A.

I must concentrate all my efforts in the attainment of freedom for my people.

When I am offered work, I am very selective.

Theatre has had a very important role in changing South Africa. There was a time when all other channels of expression were closed that we were able to break the conspiracy of silence, to educate people inside South Africa and the outside world. We became the illegal newspaper.

In 1973, 'Sizwe Banzi is Dead' and 'The Island,' which I co-wrote with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona, transferred from The Royal Court Theatre to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End.

Art is universal. When works of art become classics, it is because they transcend geographical boundaries, racial barriers and time.

When the situation politically became intolerable within South Africa, we used the arts as a weapon for change.

In South Africa in 1987, apartheid was still going strong. Some of the most brutal race laws had been relaxed, but they hadn't yet been repealed. There was still a lot of tension.

And I'm part of the generation of South Africans who feel we're lucky to be alive.

I come from a long line of storytellers.

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

My grandfather told me our history through his stories about all the great Zulu battles.

I was 51 when I voted for the first time in 1994, and I look at South Africa through those spectacles.

When I'm abroad it's almost like I'm in a transit lounge. I'm only comfortable when I know the date of departure.

Over the years, many young actors have approached me: Vusi Kunene, Sello Maake ka Ncube, and Seputla Sebogodi. They all said, 'Hey Bra John, let's do 'The Island and we want you to direct.' But somehow, my heart was not in it or I was busy with something else, so I'd say, 'ja, ja, we'll do it.'

I had to look at white people as fellow South Africans and fellow partners in building a new South Africa.

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

You can give me any of Shakespeare's plays and I'll tell you a parallel African folktale.

In Australia, I almost became a counsellor. At the end of each performance there would be a queue of sobbing people backstage. They all wanted to explain why they left South Africa.

I started to get my doctorate, not to be called 'doctor.' Those are just little things you get to get recognition.

I'm Dad at home, not John Kani.