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Damon Galgut Quotes

Playwright

Damon Galgut is a South African playwright known for his profound psychological insights and portrayals of South African social changes. His works often explore the relationships between individuals and society, history, and memory.

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All Behinds Happens Made Moments Ability Ability To Love Action Affection Africa Antidote

Famous Damon Galgut Quotes

“No emotion was supposed to cross the great divide of class. Affection could erase all hierarchy; in this was the danger, and the delight.”

Emotion Class Affection Hierarchy

Book:Arctic Summer

Source: Arctic Summer

“A smile quickly cut his face and then healed up.”

Smile

Book:The Promise

Source: The Promise

“For she too has her little pains, and they wear her out, though she does not speak of them, or is not asked, and when they show themselves it tends to be when she's alone.”

Pain

Book:The Promise

Source: The Promise

“Children still, on the verge of not being children any more.”

Children

Book:The Promise

Source: The Promise

“Her own voice sounds echoey, as if somebody else is speaking.”

Disassociation Derealization

Book:The Promise

Source: The Promise

“I'd like to accept this on behalf of all the stories told and untold, the writers heard and unheard, from the remarkable continent I'm part of. Please keep listening to us, there's a lot more to come.”

Writers Africa Cultural Appropriation

Author:Damon Galgut

“Nor is this uncommon, as Mervyn will tell you if you ask him. He has seen all of it before many times, including the curious pull that a corpse exerts, drawing people towards it. By tomorrow already this will have changed, the body will be long gone and its permenent absence covered over with plans, arrangements, reiminiscences and time. Yes, already. The disappearance begins immediately and in a certain sense never ends. But in the mean time there is the body, the horrible meaty fact of it [..] Fortunately she isn't heavy, the sickness hollowed her out, and it's easy to get her down the stairs and around the challenging angle at the bottom and along the passage to the kitchen.”

Death Undertaker Corpse

Book:The Promise

Source: The Promise

“Goldie was a believer in the imperial project, which is to say, in the civilising power of social progress.”

Progress Imperial

Author:Damon Galgut

“Veel van de levenden zijn ook vaag en op drift, die tekortkoming is niet louter aan overledenen voorbehouden.”

Overledenen Levenden Op Drift

Book:The Promise

Source: The Promise

“De geest deinst terug voor zijn eigen afwezigheid, kan niet aan zichzelf denken als niet-denkend, de kilste leegte die er is.”

Geest Leegte

Book:The Promise

Source: The Promise

“The only way you can be universal is to be sure you are very specifically local.”

Way Universal Locals

Author:Damon Galgut

“If I had done this, if I had said that, in the end you are always more tormented by what you didn't do than what you did, actions already performed can always be rationalized in time, the neglected deed might have changed the world.”

Ifs World Said Ends Done Might Action Changed Deeds Neglected

Book:In a Strange Room

Source: In a Strange Room

“In his clearest moments he thinks he has lost the ability to love, people or places or things, most of all the person and place and thing that he is. Without love nothing has value, nothing can be made to matter very much.”

People Thinking Persons Made Matter Moments Values Lost Ability Without Love Ability To Love

Book:In a Strange Room

Source: In a Strange Room

“A journey is a gesture inscribed in space, it vanishes even as it's made. You go from one place to another place, and on to somewhere else again, and already behind you there is no trace that you were ever there.”

Made Space Behinds Journey Gestures Somewhere Else Behind You

Author:Damon Galgut

“There's no theme, no moral to be learned, except for the knowledge that lightning can strike from a clear blue sky one morning and take away everything you've built, everything you've counted on, leaving wreckage and no meaning behind. It can happen to anyone, it can happen to you.”

Happens Behinds Moral Morning Clear Sky Built Blue Leaving Strikes Theme Lightning Blue Sky Wreckage Clear Blue Sky

Author:Damon Galgut

“Things happen once only and are never repeated, never return. Except in memory.”

Happens Memories Return Things Happen

Author:Damon Galgut

“Poetry was syllable and rhythm. Poetry was the measurement of breath. Poetry was time make audible. Poetry evoked the present moment; poetry was the antidote to history. Poetry was language free from habit.”

Moments Language Habit Breaths Rhythm Present Moment Antidote Measurement Syllables

Book:The Impostor

Source: The Impostor

About the Author

Born: November 12, 1963
Known for: Playwright
Quotes: 17

Books & Sources

The PromiseRelated source material

In a Strange RoomRelated source material

Arctic SummerRelated source material

The ImpostorRelated source material

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