- Crazy
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- Nov 07, 2020
John Kani Quotes
Most Famous John Kani Quotes of All Time!
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- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Change
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- Nov 07, 2020
Acting became a powerful tool for change. You had to tell stories that were important to you.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
You can give me any of Shakespeare's plays and I'll tell you a parallel African folktale.
- Done
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- Nov 07, 2020
I will always vote. I have done so, ever since 1994.
- Did
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- Nov 07, 2020
I did 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for 34 years.
- First Time
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- Nov 07, 2020
I was 51 when I voted for the first time in 1994, and I look at South Africa through those spectacles.
- Democracy
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- Nov 07, 2020
Shakespeare examines how democracy is built.
- Language
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'd read Shakespeare in school, translated into isiXhosa, and loved the stories, but I hadn't realised before I started reading the English text how powerful the language was - the great surging speeches Othello has.
- Feel
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- Nov 07, 2020
And I'm part of the generation of South Africans who feel we're lucky to be alive.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
Whenever I play Shakespeare, I keep thinking, 'how did this Englishman know so much about me?'
- Man
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Fight
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- Nov 07, 2020
My stories are about humanity, about the challenges of surviving and the constant fight against ignorance, inhumanity and complacency.
- Injustice
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- Nov 07, 2020
Protest theater has a place again. It's not against whites or apartheid. It is against injustice and anything that fails our people.
- Like
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I first encountered Shakespeare as a boy, I read every word this man has written. To me, he is like an African storyteller.
- Man
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- Nov 07, 2020
Shakespeare's words paint pictures in glorious colour in my language. They were written by a man whose use of words fits exactly into Xhosa.
- Know
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Next
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- Nov 07, 2020
Everything you do on stage is always a response to something, not the next line.
- Home
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm Dad at home, not John Kani.
- Government
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- Nov 07, 2020
Before 1994, many South Africans used theater as a voice of protest against the government. But with the end of apartheid, like the artists who watched the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe, theater had to find new voices and search for new issues.
- Country
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- Nov 07, 2020
It is ridiculous to think we can erase racism in South Africa, but through theater there can be a genuine attempt to move on with our lives and build a better country.
- Line
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- Nov 07, 2020
I come from a long line of storytellers.
- Great
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- Nov 07, 2020
My grandfather told me our history through his stories about all the great Zulu battles.
- New
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- Nov 07, 2020
I had to look at white people as fellow South Africans and fellow partners in building a new South Africa.
- End
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Country
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Freedom
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- Nov 07, 2020
I must concentrate all my efforts in the attainment of freedom for my people.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
Theatre has had a very important role in changing South Africa. There was a time when all other channels of expression were closed that we were able to break the conspiracy of silence, to educate people inside South Africa and the outside world. We became the illegal newspaper.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
When you write as an artist, you just tell a story and people say it addresses issues.
- Daily
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Great
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Nov 07, 2020
When I am offered work, I am very selective.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
I want my work to contribute toward creating a better society, toward bringing people together. That is always the first consideration, not the money.
- Arts
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- Nov 07, 2020
When the situation politically became intolerable within South Africa, we used the arts as a weapon for change.
- Evaluation
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- Nov 07, 2020
I have been on the Urban Brew board for many years and assisted with the artistic evaluation of the various shows that were pitched to the production company.
- End
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- Nov 07, 2020
A telenovela is a story that's like a soapie, but it has a beginning, middle and an end.
- Beauty
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- Nov 07, 2020
That's the beauty of art: art is universal.
- Political
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Citizen
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- Nov 07, 2020