Athol Fugard

Athol Fugard OIS HonFRSL (born 11 June 1932) is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. He is best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apartheid. Some of these have also been adapted for film.

Quotes

The Blood Knot (1961)

• For all agonies of the joints: Lum¬ bago, rheumatism, tennis elbows, housemaid’s knees;also ideal for bunions, corns, callouses
  • Scene one page 10
• Too many cooks spoil the broth
  • Scene one page 13
• No smell doth stink as sweet as labour, Tis joyous times when man and man Do work and sweat in common toil.When all the world’s my neighbor.
  • Scene one page 13
• Ethel Lange, 10 de Villiers Street, Oudtshoom. I am eighteen years old and well-developed and would like to correspond with a gent of sober habits and a good outlook on life. My interests are nature, rock-and-roll, swimming and a happy future. My motto is, ‘rolling stones gather no moss.’ Please note: I promise to reply faithfully
  • Scene two page 26
• Twenty-two and no strings attached. Would like letters from men of the same age or older. My \interests are beauty contests and going out. A snap with the first letter, please.
  • Scene two page 26
• Betty Jones. Roodepoort. Young and pleasing personality. I’d like to correspond with gentlemen friends of maturity. No teenagers need reply. My hobby at the moment is histori¬ cal films, but I’m prepared to go back to last year’s, which was autograph hunting. I would appreciate a photo¬ graph
  • Scene two page 26-27
• Too many cooks spoil the broth.
  • Scene two page 29
• I’m sure you’d like to know I got your letter, and the picture. I’d say Oudtshoom seems okay. You were quite okay too. I would like to send you a picture of me, but it’s this way. It’s winter down here. The light is bad, the lake is black, the birds have gone. Wait for spring, when things improve. Okay? Good. I heard you ask about my car. Yes. I have it. We pumped the tires today. Tomorrow I think I’ll put in some gas. I’d like to take you for a drive, Ethel, and Lucy too. In fact. I’d like to drive both of you. They say over here. I’m fast. Ethel I’ll tell you this. If I could drive you, Ethel, I would do it so fast, Ethel, and Lucy too, both of you, so fast I would, do it so fast, fast, fast it would hurt—
  • Scene two page 41
• I notice your brother got boots. All policemen got boots. Good luck to him, any¬ way, and Lucy too. Write soon. Zachariah Pietersen
  • Scene two page 41
• I like the thought of this little white girl
  • Scene four page 53

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (1972)

• "I took a good look at my life. What did I see? A bloody circus monkey! Selling most of his time on earth to another man. Out of every twenty-four hours I could only properly call mine the six when I was sleeping. What the hell is the use of that?"
  • Styles, p. 9
  • Styles recounts his former life as an automobile parts factory worker. He notes that he was oppressed and had to work constantly.

• "This is a strong-room of dreams. The dreamers? My people. The simple people, who you never find mentioned in the history books, who never get statutes erected to them, or monuments commemorating their great deeds. People who would be forgotten, and their dreams with them, if it wasn’t for Styles. That’s what I do, friends. Put down, in my way, on paper the dreams and hopes of my people so that even their children’s children will remember a man."
  • Styles, p. 12
  • Styles describes the pride he takes in his work.

• "Burn that book? Stop kidding yourself, Sizwe! Anyway, suppose you do. You must immediately go apply for a new one. Right? And until that new one comes, be careful the police don’t stop you and ask for your book. Into the Courtroom, brother. Charge: Failing to produce Reference Book on demand. Five rand or five days."
  • Buntu, p. 24
  • Buntu detailing all of the offences Sizwe could easily be charged with if he burns his passport.

• "You must understand this. We own nothing except ourselves. This world and its laws, allows us nothing except ourselves."
  • Styles, p. 16
  • What Styles seems to be implying is that individuals can only really claim themselves but, everything else is a possession that can be taken away. His remarks that "this world and its laws" allow for nothing else, simply imply that a person's identity is the only thing that cannot be taken away under the oppressive rules of the South African government.

• "Sizwe Bansi, in a manner of speaking, is dead!"
  • Sizwe, p. 22
  • In a letter to his wife, Sizwe describes what has happened to him. By such utterance, he is not dead; instead, he means that he has given up his former name (identity).

• "I don't want to die."
  • Sizwe, p. 27
  • This statement, as simple as it is, indicates Sizwe's desire to keep the life he has built for himself and shows that he is not willing to put his life in danger.

• "What's wrong with me? I'm a man. I've got eyes to see. I've got ears to listen when people talk. I've got a good head to think things. What's wrong with me?"
  • Sizwe, p. 35
  • This quote reveals how much Sizwe has suffered during this period and how severely South African laws dehumanize him and other Black South Africans.

• "I don't want to lose my name, Buntu."
  • Sizwe, p. 36
  • Sizwe appears to be rejecting Buntu's suggestion to take a dead man's passbook, explaining how he values his name and views it as a core part of his identity.

• "Are you really worried about your children, friend, or are you just worried about yourself and your bloody name? Wake up, man! Use that bloody book and with your pay on Friday you'll have a real chance to do something for them."
  • Buntu, p. 37
  • Buntu encourages Sizwe to give up his real name, and the life attached to it, to improve his circumstances and avoid deportation.

• "Hold it, Robert. Hold it just like that. Just one more. Now smile Robert... Smile... Smile..."
  • Styles, p. 44
  • Sizwe, now Robert, takes the photograph that will go in his passbook

"Master Harold"...and the Boys (1982)

• Anybody who thinks there's nothing wrong with this world needs to have his head examined. Just when things are going all right, without fail someone or something will come along and spoil everything. Somebody should write that down as a fundamental law of the Universe. The principle of perpetual disappointment. If there is a God who created this world, he should scrap it and try again.

• Yes! That's what all our talk about a decent world has been... just so much bullshit.""We did say it was still only a dream.""And a bloody useless one at that. Life's a fuck-up and it's never going to change.

• It's just that life felt the right size in there... not too big and not too small. Wasn't so hard to work up a bit of courage. It's got so bloody complicated since then.

• Sam: There's no collisions out there, Hally. Nobody trips or stumbles or bumps into anybody else. That's what that moment is all about. To be one of those finalists on that dance floor is like... like being in a dream about a world in which accidents don't happen.
  Hally: Jesus, Sam! That's beautiful!
  Willie: [Can endure waiting no longer.] I'm starting! [Willie dances while Sam talks.]
  Sam: Of course it is. That's what I've been trying to say to you all afternoon. And it's beautiful because that is what we want life to be like. But instead, like you said, Hally, we're bumping into each other all the time. Look at the three of us this afternoon. I've bumped into Willie, the two of us have bumped into you, you've bumped into your mother, she bumping into your Dad... None of us knows the steps and there's no music playing. And it doesn't stop with us. The whole world is doing it all the time. Open a newspaper and what do you read? America has bumped into Russia, England is bumping into India, rich man bumps into poor man. Those are big collisions, Hally. They make for a lot of bruises. People get hurt in all that bumping, and we're sick and tired of it now. It's been going on for too long. Are we never going to get it right? ... Learn to dance life like champions instead of always being just a bunch of beginners at it?
  Hally: You've got a vision, Sam!
  Sam: Not just me. What I'm saying to you is that everybody's got it. That's why there's only standing room left for the Centenery Hall in two weeks' time. For as long as the music lasts, we are going to see six couples get it right, the way we want life to be.
  Hally: But is that the best we can do, Sam watch six finalists dreaming about the way it should be?
  Sam: I don't know. But it starts with that. Without the dream we won't know what we're going for. And anyway I reckon there are a few people who have got past just dreaming about it and are trying for something real.

• Be careful, Hally." "Of what? The truth? I seem to be the only one around here who is prepared to face it.

• Life is just a plain bloody mess, that's all. And people are fools.

• Sam: So then what is art?
  Hally: You want a definition?
  Sam: Ja.
  Hally: [He realizes he has got to be careful. He gives the matter a lot of thought before answering.] Philosophers have been trying to do that for centuries. What is Art? What is Life? But basically I suppose it's... the giving of meaning to matter.
  Sam: Nothing to do with beautiful?
  Hally: It goes beyond that. It's the giving of form to the formless.

• Bullshit, as usual.

• Flicker of morbid interest.
  • Narrator, Section 1 (Dance Practice and History Lessons)

• But things will change, you wait and see.
  • Hally, Section 1 (Dance Practice and History Lessons)

• I'm all right on oppression.
  • Hally, Section 1 (Dance Practice and History Lessons)

• Tolstoy may have educated his peasants, but I've educated you.
  • Hally, Section 1 (Dance Practice and History Lessons)

• Sam, Willie ... is he in there with you boys?
  • Willie, Section 2 (Sam and Hally Reminisce)

• In fact, I was shit-scared that we were going to make fools of ourselves.
  • Hally, Section 2 (Sam and Hally Reminisce)

• Little white boy ... and a black man old enough to be his father flying a kite.
  • Hally, Section 2 (Sam and Hally Reminisce)

• You want to get into the story as well, do you?
  • Hally, Section 2 (Sam and Hally Reminisce)

• It was you who start me ballroom dancing.
  • Willie, Section 3 (A Disturbing Phone Call)

• Not just me. What I'm saying to you is that everybody's got it.
  • Sam, Section 4 (The Dance Contest)

• He certainly was trying to teach people to get the steps right.
  • Hally, Section 4 (The Dance Contest

• All you've got to do is stand up and walk away from it.
  • Sam, Section 5 (Master Harold and Reconciliation)

• "It doesn't have to be that way. There something called progress, you know. We don't exactly burn people at the stake anymore.
  • Hally, pg. 15

• We need a definition of greatness, and I suppose that would be somebody who... somebody who benefited all mankind."
  • Hally, pg. 19

• It's the likes of you that kept the Inquisition in business. It's called bigotry."
  • Hally, pg. 20

• I think I spent more time in there with you chaps than anywhere else in that dump. And do you blame me? Nothing but bloody misery wherever you went."
  • Hally, pg. 25

• Life is just a plain bloody mess, that's all. And people are fools.
  • Hally, pg. 34

• To be one of those finalists on that floor is like... like being in a dream world in which accidents don't happen."
  • Sam, page. 45

• He's a white man and that's good enough for you.
  • Hally, page. 53

• I mean, how do I wash off yours and your father's filth?...I've also failed. A long time ago I promised myself I would do something, but you've just shown me...Master Harold...that I've failed.
  • Sam, page 57

• Fly another kite, I suppose. It worked once, and this time I need it as much as you do."
  • Sam, page 59

• Tonight I find Hilda and say sorry. And make promise I won't beat her no more. You hear me, Boet Sam?
  • Willie, pg. 60

• Sam: But don’t let me see it. The secret is to make it look easy. Ballroom must look happy, Willie, not like hard work. It must Ja!It must look like romance.
  • line 21

• Hally: I oscillate between hope and despair for this world as well, Sam.
  • line 175

• Anybody who lets facts interfere with his imagination is a person who will never enjoy anything else again.

• There's nothing wrong with the world. It just goes around and around, and you gotta get on with your life.

• Mr. Sam was our father. He knew about our dreams and ambitions.

• I’m in the business of making people realize that their opinions aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

• Aah, violence is the only way I can make people pay attention to me.

• There’s no question he’s smarter than I am, but does that give him the right to call me a name like that?

• A hint of water, a whisper of foam. Long, white tails streaming behind them as they twist and turn in the bay.

• Without me breathing down your neck all the time, you’d lean even more to the right than you do now.

• You were scared of the ball because it was big and hard and could hurt you, just like life can hurt you.

• Somebody once said that there are only two places you can be alone—inside your mother’s womb and inside your coffin.

• I thought I was keeping it straight and I’ve suddenly wondered whether it is straight, and whether it matters whether it is or not.

• Doesn’t it sort of bug you that people like your dad can’t take care of the world?

• Do you think Fathers do any more for their sons, except in terms of money, that Mothers do for their daughters.

• Don’t talk crap, Hally! You don’t even know what the word ‘sympathy’ means.

• She’s no match for him when it comes to a battle of words.
  • Page 33

• Hally: It’s a bloody awful world when you come to think of it. People can be real bastards.
  Sam: That’s the way it is, Hally.
  Hally: It doesn’t have to be that way. There is something called progress you know. We don’t exactly burn people at the stake anymore.
  • Page 13

• Hally: Anyway, that’s my man of magnitude. Charles Darwin! Who’s yours?
  Sam: [without hesitation] Abraham Lincoln.
  Hally: I might have guessed as much. Don’t get sentimental, Sam. You’ve never been a slave, you know. And anyway, we freed your ancestors here in South Africa long before the Americans.
  • Page 18

• Hally: Not many intellectuals are prepared to shovel manure with the peasants then go home and write a ‘little book’ called War and Peace. Incidentally, Sam, he was somebody else who, to quote, ‘…did not distinguish himself scholastically.
  • Page 20