That has always seemed to me one of the stranger aspects of literary fame: you prove your competence as a writer and an inventor of stories, and then people clamour for you to make speeches and tell them what you think about the world. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
In order to be cruel we have to close our hearts to the suffering of the other. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that right in law. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
Lebanon, Israel, Ireland, South Africa – wherever there is a bleeding sore on the body of the world, the same hard-eyed narrow-minded fanatics are busy, indifferent to life, in love with death. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote
In becoming a citizen, one undertakes certain duties and responsibilities. One of the more intangible of those duties and responsibilities is no matter what one’s birth and background, to accept the historical past of the new country as one’s own. J. M. Coetzee Read Quote