Quotes from John Kani

We've got the right to vote, but what does it mean? People now want to have the right to a job, the right to education, the right to medical services.

Shakespeare's words paint pictures in glorious colour in my language. They were written by a man whose use of words fits exactly into Xhosa.

I was 51 when I voted for the first time in 1994, and I look at South Africa through those spectacles.

I am a citizen of the world, or no world at all!

I understood the whole purpose of Truth and Reconciliation, and I supported it 100 per cent, but I couldn't deal with it myself.

It dawned on me that theatre is a powerful weapon for change.

'Captain Marvel,' whereby the steel trap is challenged, where the hero is a heroine, where the most powerful person who has the welfare of the future of the human race is a woman. What else can it be? Because that was the role of my mother when I was a kid.

The exchange rate of the Rand against the dollar, pound or euro makes South Africa an attractive location. The positive side of this is it gives our artists and technicians an opportunity to work.

In South Africa in 1987, apartheid was still going strong. Some of the most brutal race laws had been relaxed, but they hadn't yet been repealed. There was still a lot of tension.

In the global push to stop gender-based violence, men in the entertainment industry need to join forces with women to end violence by men against women and children.

Art is universal. When works of art become classics, it is because they transcend geographical boundaries, racial barriers and time.

Over the years, many young actors have approached me: Vusi Kunene, Sello Maake ka Ncube, and Seputla Sebogodi. They all said, 'Hey Bra John, let's do 'The Island and we want you to direct.' But somehow, my heart was not in it or I was busy with something else, so I'd say, 'ja, ja, we'll do it.'