Skip to content

Dennis Brutus Quotes

1924–2009 South Africa

Dennis Vincent Brutus (28 November 1924 – 26 December 2009) was a South African activist, educator, journalist and poet best known for his campaign to have South Africa banned from the Olympic Games due to its racial policy of apartheid.

South Africa
Activists
Journalists
Poets

Random Dennis Brutus quote

12 quotes

I think only dead people don't change, and even they putrefy so that there is a form of change.

Poetry is a way of exploring experience, of understanding what it means to be human.

The struggle against apartheid was a struggle for human dignity.

I think the function of the poet is to make people more aware.

The writer cannot escape the realities of the society in which he lives.

I really believe that there is a thing called artistic integrity.

I don't believe one ought to turn art into propaganda.

There must be no ornament, absolutely none.

I was always interested in sport, but I became convinced that sport was one of the most powerful instruments for social change.

Sport is not just a game. It reflects the society in which it exists.

You ought to write for the ordinary person: for the man who drives a bus... If you can write poetry which makes sense to those people, then there is some justification for writing.

Every poem in Sirens, Knuckles, and Boots was written for a particular person or to serve a particular function.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Dennis Brutus (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.