Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach ( Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˈbrəitən ˈbrəitənbaχ]; 16 September 1939 – 24 November 2024) was a South African writer, poet, and painter. He became internationally well-known as a dissident poet and vocal critic of South Africa under apartheid, and as a political prisoner of the National Party–led South Africa.https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Breyten_Breytenbach&action=edit Quotes History is a succession of things that ought never to have happened, and the writing act is a kind of revenge against this.https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/38831.Breyten_Breytenbach?hl=en-US Sometimes, fiction tells a truth that history cannot. Writing is not just to know, it is also to console. We need to be reminded that we are part of the obscure rhythm of birth and de You ride astride the imaginary in order to hunt down the real.https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/38831.Breyten_Breytenbach?hl=en-US There is beauty in resistance, for it is the seed of revolution. The artist's duty is to hold a mirror to society, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/38831.Breyten_Breytenbach?hl=en-US To be truly alive is to constantly question and challenge the status quo. In dancing with the enemy one follows his steps even if counting under one's breath.https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/38831.Breyten_Breytenbach?hl=en-US There is nothing more liberating than the power of imagination. We know that in order to progress we must stretch for something just out of reach—if only for a life that will be more compassionate and decent than the cruelty, paranoia, greed, narrow corporatism, or narcissism we mostly indulge in and find such ample justification for. And so we dream.https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/38831.Breyten_Breytenbach?hl=en-US Our greatest strength lies in our ability to empathize with others. I came, I saw, I was confused. The world, our world, has existed since night of time, yet every day we must recreate it. If we did not walk upon the earth, it would not exist.https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/38831.Breyten_Breytenbach?hl=en-US