QUOTES by John Kani
Find most favourite and famour Authors from A.A Milne to Zoe Kravitz.
When I was asked to write a concept for a telenovela, I didn't underestimate my non-experience in the field.
Quote by -John Kani
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.
Quote by -John Kani
Everything you do on stage is always a response to something, not the next line.
Quote by -John Kani
And I'm part of the generation of South Africans who feel we're lucky to be alive.
Quote by -John Kani
I used to wonder, when my grandmother would tell me what the wolf said to the jackal, how these animals can talk. And, she would say, 'in my stories, animals talk. Shut up and listen.'
Quote by -John Kani
You can give me any of Shakespeare's plays and I'll tell you a parallel African folktale.
Quote by -John Kani
A telenovela is a story that's like a soapie, but it has a beginning, middle and an end.
Quote by -John Kani
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.
Quote by -John Kani
We never deal with propaganda. We never deal with politics. We never deal with newspaper headlines. We deal with the harsh realities of our lives. We will only comment when there is more bread to eat, more space in which to move, time in which to open your mouth and sing. As long as these things have not happened, we do not talk about politics.
Quote by -John Kani
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.
Quote by -John Kani
Whenever I play Shakespeare, I keep thinking, 'how did this Englishman know so much about me?'
Quote by -John Kani
My grandfather told me our history through his stories about all the great Zulu battles.
Quote by -John Kani
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.
Quote by -John Kani
My stories are about humanity, about the challenges of surviving and the constant fight against ignorance, inhumanity and complacency.
Quote by -John Kani
I believe strongly that the word 'protest' is no excuse for bad work. The artist must create.
Quote by -John Kani
I have never been attracted to television work. Even to appear in series and soapies. I have always appeared in theatre and major movies, writing plays and other things.
Quote by -John Kani
I was the generation who hated the white man, despised him, wanted to shoot him.
Quote by -John Kani
We haven't got those dreams: 'I wish to become doctor or a lawyer.' Black people in South Africa have been barred in doing anything that would articulate their cause.
Quote by -John Kani
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.
Quote by -John Kani
If we'd lived in England or America we'd have told stories abut our lives and nobody would have called it protest theatre. But the reality of South Africa was the arrests and detentions and oppression - we could not escape that, so we decided to take it on.
Quote by -John Kani
I had to look at white people as fellow South Africans and fellow partners in building a new South Africa.
Quote by -John Kani
Our job as artists, we believe, is not to make changes in society. We don't have the ability to do that. We reflect life. We are the mirror of the society to look into. Our job is to raise questions, but we have no answers.
Quote by -John Kani
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.'
Quote by -John Kani
I understood the whole purpose of Truth and Reconciliation, and I supported it 100 per cent, but I couldn't deal with it myself.
Quote by -John Kani
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.
Quote by -John Kani
My love, my passion, my everything is this continent of Africa. I have always celebrated African humanity.
Quote by -John Kani
All over the world, there is someone sitting in a cell because he or she is not allowed freedom of expression.
Quote by -John Kani
Very rarely in the life of an actor and a performer do you do something you truly believe in, do you do something you are absolutely proud of.
Quote by -John Kani
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.
Quote by -John Kani
'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.
Quote by -John Kani
When the situation politically became intolerable within South Africa, we used the arts as a weapon for change.
Quote by -John Kani
Working with my friend Sir Antony Sher is truly one of the highlights of my career as an artist.
Quote by -John Kani