10 of the wisest things Nadine Gordimer ever said

Nadine Gordimer was born on the 20th of November 1923 and since her death in 2014, she is one of the most widely read writers from Africa.

Born in South Africa, Gordimer is known as a political activist who spoke openly against apartheid in South Africa.

Recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, she was recognized as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".

Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa.

1. "Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever."

2. “The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is.”

3. “I have failed at many things, but I have never been afraid.”

4. “Books don't need batteries.”

5. “What is the purpose of writing? For me personally, it is really to explain the mystery of life, and the mystery of life includes, of course, the personal, the political, the forces that make us what we are while there's another force from inside battling to make us something else.”

6. “A truly living human being cannot remain neutral.”

7. “Death is really the mystery of life, isn't it?”

8. "The creative act is not pure. History evidences it. Sociology extracts it. The writer loses Eden, writes to be read and comes to realize that he is answerable."

9. "Truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is."

10. "A child understands fear, and the hurt and hate it brings."

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