92 Quotes 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.'

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 am a citizen of the world, or no world at all!

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.

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.

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.

'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.

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

You can give me any of Shakespeare's plays and I'll tell you a parallel African folktale.