Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimerwas a South African writer, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was recognized as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity"...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth20 November 1923
writing discovery voyages
Writing is always a voyage of discovery.
writing needs made
I never talk about what I'm writing about currently, never. It's private work on your own, no need or obligation to talk about it. Writers are made into performers these days, including myself, but there are some instances in which I will not perform.
looks would-be canyons
Writers themselves don't analyze what they do; to analyze would be to look down while crossing a canyon on a tightrope.
writing thinking work-out
a writer doesn't only need the time when he's actually writing - he or she has got to have time to think and time just to let things work out. Nothing is worse for this than society. Nothing is worse for this than the abrasive, if enjoyable, effect of other people.
eras consciousness certain
In a certain sense a writer is 'selected' by his subject - his subject being the consciousness of his own era.
believe writing solitude
I believe - I know (there are not many things I should care to dogmatize about, on the subject of writing) that writers need solitude, and seek alienation of a kind every day of their working lives. (And remember, they are not even aware when and when not they are working.) ... The tension between standing apart and being fully involved; that is what makes a writer.
betrayal writing thinking
It's absolutely fatal to your writing to think about how your work will be received. It's a betrayal of whatever talent you have.
light mystery function
The function of a writer is to make sense of life. It is such a mystery, it changes all the time, like the light.
home long forever
I have learned since that sometimes the things we want most are impossible for us. You may long to come home, yet wander forever.
hearing keenness revive
Keenness of hearing revives when one is alone.
survival different wagers
In various and different circumstances certain objects and individuals are going to turn out to be vital. The wager of survival cannot, by its nature, reveal which, in advance of events.
white firsts would-be
If one will always have to feel white first, and African second, it would be better not to stay on in Africa
believe men emotional
Where do whites fit in the New Africa? Nowhere, I'm inclined to sayand I do believe that it is true that even the gentlest and most westernised Africans would like the emotional idea of the continent entirely without the complication of the presence of the white man for a generation or two. But nowhere, as an answer for us whites, is in the same category as remarks like What's the use of living? in the face of the threat of atomic radiation. We are living; we are in Africa.
church entering crosses
Mumbling obeisance to abhorrence of apartheid is like those lapsed believers who cross themselves when entering a church.