138 Quotes by Wilbur Smith

When I vacate this sack of old bones I won’t care what you do with it. Bury or burn it but don’t make much fuss.

I grew up in Rhodesia on my father’s ranch and every year he used to take us on safari in some remote area of the wilderness.

People don’t really know themselves until they’re 30. Like most people nowadays, I went to university, got a degree and wandered for a bit. I trained to be a chartered accountant, which I didn’t much enjoy, and it was only slowly that the idea of becoming a creative writer gelled.

The branch breaks that will not bend with the wind. You must learn to bend”.

At the age of 12 I won the school prize for Best English Essay. The prize was a copy of Somerset Maugham’s ‘Introduction To Modern English And American Literature.’ To this day I keep it on the shelf between my collection of Forester’s works and the little urn that contains my mother’s ashes.

Duplicity thy name is woman!

I don’t want children. Why should I let some strange little monster into my life to destroy what to me is a perfect set-up?

I read all of Rider Haggard’s books. For me he had the romance of Africa with a little bit of mysticism. I’m delighted to be looked on as his heir and be categorised as an adventure novelist because that’s exactly what I am.

I shot my first lion at the age of 14 when a pride threatened my father’s livestock while he was away on holiday.