Latest Nadine Gordimer Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I decided that I wanted nothing to do with South African government television while any of my fellow writers were banned and couldn't speak publicly.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Government, Television, Speak

  Source: progressive.org

• Once you have some sort of reputation in the outside world, they will try to woo you. They will say, "Won't you come and be on a talk program about books? That's not political." Then they can say to the outside world, "See how free it is, she appears on television. See how free it is." So I refused to have anything of mine read or dramatized on South African television.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Book, Political, Trying

  Source: progressive.org

• When I was a child, we seemed to be living in a world remote from the rest of the world. But television has made a great difference to all of us. If something happens where I live, you see it tomorrow or perhaps even at the same time it is happening there. It's not "one world" in the sense that conflicts are resolved in the world. But we are more one world in that we know what is going on and are psychologically influenced by what goes on around us.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Children, Differences, Goes On

  Source: progressive.org

• In a country like South Africa, writers have nuisance value, because those of us who have become known overseas have certainly helped to inform people about what life is like there.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Country, People, Life Is Like

  Source: progressive.org

• If you look at the recent Nobel Prize winners, one couldn't say that the work didn't matter and the political commitment did. Who had ever heard of the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz? He is not politically involved. Octavio Paz is a great poet, also not politically involved. The Nobel Prize is for literature, for the quality of work over the years.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Commitment, Years, Political

  Source: progressive.org

• Can you imagine writers influencing things in America? Can you imagine a writer in England influencing? Absolutely not. And in France? It used to be, but no more - absolutely not. France used to, at least, have writers as diplomats, but not any more.

  Nadine Gordimer

  America, Diplomats, France

  Source: progressive.org

• As writers, we are exploring the mystery, the mystery of existence.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Mystery, Existence, Exploring

  "Warrior of the Imagination". Academy of Achievement interview, www.achievement.org. November 11, 2009.

• The Communist Party is very popular in South Africa, especially among the young people. Never having had a chance to travel, and having suffered so much under capitalism, they still can't believe that the Russian people themselves have rejected it.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Party, Believe, People

  Source: www.progressive.org

• About the joys and the courage, I really don't know what other people think. I just know that I've never left Africa. I've lived there all my life. And one of the wonderful things, in spite of all the terrible things that happen in South Africa, is the way people continue to keep their dignity.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Thinking, People, Joy

  Source: www.progressive.org

• Certainly the people who are close to me are happier. They feel freer.

  Nadine Gordimer

  People, Feels

  Source: www.progressive.org

• I couldn't be sufficiently interested in human beings to be a writer if I had contempt for human beings.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Contempt, Humans, Ifs

  Source: www.progressive.org

• One can't measure how a mood of confidence comes about.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Mood

  Source: www.progressive.org

• When I was a child, we seemed to be living in a world remote from the rest of the world. But television has made a great difference to all of us.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Children, Differences, Television

  Source: www.progressive.org

• I don't think I am a citizen of the world; I am very much a citizen of my own country. But my own country is closely related to other parts of the world and influenced by what happens there.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Country, Thinking, Citizens

  Source: www.progressive.org

• Can you imagine a writer in England influencing? Absolutely not. And in France? It used to be, but no more-absolutely not. France used to, at least, have writers as diplomats, but not any more.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Diplomats, France, England

  Source: www.progressive.org