Over the years, many young actors have approached me: Vusi Kunene, Sello Maake ka Ncube, and Seputla Sebogodi. They all said, 'Hey Bra John, let's do 'The Island and we want you to direct.' But somehow, my heart was not in it or I was busy with something else, so I'd say, 'ja, ja, we'll do it.'

Protest theater has a place again. It's not against whites or apartheid. It is against injustice and anything that fails our people.

It is a troubled soul that forces the human being to act. It is some kind of gangrene within you, inside of you, that eats your soul, that forces you to save your soul.

When I'm abroad it's almost like I'm in a transit lounge. I'm only comfortable when I know the date of departure.

When western culture developed, we became detached from nature, detached from our relationship with the animals. We saw animals perhaps as only the rhino horn, the elephant's tusk, we saw it as making money.

'Captain Marvel,' whereby the steel trap is challenged, where the hero is a heroine, where the most powerful person who has the welfare of the future of the human race is a woman. What else can it be? Because that was the role of my mother when I was a kid.

In any character you are given to play, be it evil/good/whatever character, you begin with self. You examine yourself and ruthlessly see similarities between you and the devil, or between you and the dictator, or between you and the kind man.

Seventy is beautiful for me. I am truly, at last, an elder.

In South Africa, it is different. When you are born not even your father knows what is going to happen in your life.

In South Africa, we've been watching these movies all our lives - 'Batman,' 'Superman,' 'Captain America' - and every time the mask comes off it's a white man.

We've got the right to vote, but what does it mean? People now want to have the right to a job, the right to education, the right to medical services.

In South Africa in 1987, apartheid was still going strong. Some of the most brutal race laws had been relaxed, but they hadn't yet been repealed. There was still a lot of tension.

The government harasses everything. The government must keep a constant surveillance of all activities by black people in order to maintain their reign over them, especially when they are in a minority.

What does Macbeth want? What does Shakespeare want? What does Othello want? What does James want? What does Arthur Miller want when he wrote? Those things you incorporate and create in the character, and then you step back and you create it. It always must begin with the point of truth within yourself.

I want my work to contribute toward creating a better society, toward bringing people together. That is always the first consideration, not the money.

I couldn't really say that a repressive society would result in creative art. But somehow it does help, it is an ingredient, it acts as a Catalyst to a man who is committed.

I am known for always playing virtuous characters.

When I first encountered Shakespeare as a boy, I read every word this man has written. To me, he is like an African storyteller.

'iNkaba' has made me famous in the living rooms of the people of my country. It was almost like being famous all over again. People stop me in the street and shopping malls to take pictures.

Forgiving is OK. Forgetting, never.

I was 51 when I voted for the first time in 1994, and I look at South Africa through those spectacles.

Acting became a powerful tool for change. You had to tell stories that were important to you.

When you write as an artist, you just tell a story and people say it addresses issues.

I remember the words of my grandmother who died at 102. I remember my great mother, Grand Brika, who died at the age of 106. They talked to us all the time. And my grandmother even lied to me. She said there was royalty. She said that my great-great-great grandfather was the king of the outer Thembu.

Apartheid is a lie, people can work together, people can create together.

I must concentrate all my efforts in the attainment of freedom for my people.

I started to get my doctorate, not to be called 'doctor.' Those are just little things you get to get recognition.

I still remember the moment when my teacher, Mr. Budaza, walked into class and said, 'Today we are going to study 'Julius Caesar,' one of Shakespeare's most important plays.'

Other theaters exist here solely to entertain the white audience and keep South Africa on a par with what's going on in the West End or Broadway. The Market concerns itself with theater of this country, for this country.

Working with my friend Sir Antony Sher is truly one of the highlights of my career as an artist.

I come from a long line of storytellers.

When the situation politically became intolerable within South Africa, we used the arts as a weapon for change.

'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.

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.

In 'Lion King,' the music is brilliant. The CGI is amazing.

That's the beauty of art: art is universal.

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.

All over the world, there is someone sitting in a cell because he or she is not allowed freedom of expression.

My love, my passion, my everything is this continent of Africa. I have always celebrated African humanity.

I did 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for 34 years.

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.

I understood the whole purpose of Truth and Reconciliation, and I supported it 100 per cent, but I couldn't deal with it myself.

It dawned on me that theatre is a powerful weapon for change.

When I tell a story, I have to tell it honestly.

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.'

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.

I had to look at white people as fellow South Africans and fellow partners in building a new South Africa.

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.

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.

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.