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Athol Fugard

68 quotes

“Mr. Sam was our father. He knew about our dreams and ambitions.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m in the business of making people realize that their opinions aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aah, violence is the only way I can make people pay attention to me.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There’s no question he’s smarter than I am, but does that give him the right to call me a name like that?”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A hint of water, a whisper of foam. Long, white tails streaming behind them as they twist and turn in the bay.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without me breathing down your neck all the time, you’d lean even more to the right than you do now.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You were scared of the ball because it was big and hard and could hurt you, just like life can hurt you.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Somebody once said that there are only two places you can be alone—inside your mother’s womb and inside your coffin.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Doesn’t it sort of bug you that people like your dad can’t take care of the world?”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you think Fathers do any more for their sons, except in terms of money, that Mothers do for their daughters.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don’t talk crap, Hally! You don’t even know what the word ‘sympathy’ means.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She’s no match for him when it comes to a battle of words.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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—”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source