Nadine Gordimer

If people would forget about


If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it.

Exile as a mode of


Exile as a mode of genius no longer exists; in place of Joyce we have the fragments of work appearing in Index on Censorship.

In a democracy -- even


In a democracy -- even if it is a so-called democracy like our white-?litist one -- the greatest veneration one can show the rule of law is to keep a watch on it, and to reserve the right to judge unjust laws and the subversion of the function of the law by the power of the state. That vigilance is the most important proof of respect for the law.

Art is on the side


Art is on the side of the oppressed. Think before you shudder at the simplistic dictum and its heretical definition of the freedom of art. For if art is freedom of the spirit, how can it exist within the oppressors?

A good scare is worth


A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.