Kopano Matlwa Quotes

b. 1985

Kopano Matlwa (born 1985) is a South African writer and doctor, known for her novel Spilt Milk, which focuses on the South Africa's "Born Free" generation, and Coconut, her debut novel, which addresses issues of race, class, and colonization in modern Johannesburg. Coconut was awarded the European Union Literary Award in 2006/2007 and also won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2010.

Random Kopano Matlwa quote

15 quotes

“Coconut spoke about identity and I think young people should be able to decide that for themselves.”

“’Coconut was an appeal to celebrate who we are and not be afraid and ashamed of that.”

“What does it mean to be black and who decides?”

“Being alive is the most dangerous thing in the world. Anything can happen at any time. It's safer to be dead.”

“I believe that good writing is honest writing, it’s the kind of stuff that you are too embarrassed to share publicly.”

“We [society] allow a white girl to have all sorts of complexities, but at my time, there was only one way to be black.”

“I tell her how appalling it is that we've become the very thing we fought so long and hard to destroy.”

“I write self-indulgently, I write for my own sake.”

“You are the backstage crew in the drama of their lives. If they need you, they do not know it and do not care. Open your eyes.”

“Uncle wanted to eat his pie and then have us feel sorry for him because it was making him fat.”