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Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer Quotes

Writer

Nadine Gordimer was a South African writer renowned for her profound social commentary and literary achievements. Her works often delve into issues of apartheid, class differences, and gender, winning numerous literary awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Famous Nadine Gordimer Quotes

“Humans, the only self-regarding animals, blessed or cursed with this torturing higher faculty, have always wanted to know why.”

Knows Humans Self Reason Wanted Animal Higher Blessed Curiosity Faculty Cursed

Book:Living in Hope and History

Source: Living in Hope and History

“I couldn't be sufficiently interested in human beings to be a writer if I had contempt for human beings.”

Ifs Humans Human Beings Contempt

Author:Nadine Gordimer

“If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it.”

People Ifs Humans Made Ends Would Be Earth Suffering Heaven Goal Forget Clear Terrible Ambition Decided Destroyed Utopia Rationalism

Book:Burger's Daughter

Source: Burger's Daughter

“Written words still have the amazing power to bring out the best and worst of human nature”

Humans Stills Written Worst Human Nature Written Word

Author:Nadine Gordimer

“The process of writing fiction is totally unconscious. It comes from what you are learning, as you live, from within. For me, all writing is a process of discovery. We are looking for the meaning of life. No matter where you are, there are conflicts and dramas everywhere. It is the process of what it means to be a human being; how you react and are reacted upon, these inward and outer pressures. If you are writing with a direct cause in mind, you are writing propaganda. It's fatal for a fiction writer.”

“The primacy of the word, basis of the human psyche, that has in our age been used for mind-bending persuasion and brain-washing pulp, disgraced by Gobbles and debased by advertising copy, remains a force for freedom that flies out between all bars.”

Mind Humans Age Used Force Brain Bases Remains Bars Advertising Copies Freedom Of Speech Persuasion Washing Bending Pulp Primacy Human Psyche

Author:Nadine Gordimer

“A truly living human being cannot remain neutral.”

Humans Human Beings Truly Living

Author:Nadine Gordimer

“Any writer of any worth at all hopes to play only a pocket-torch of light - and rarely, through genius, a sudden flambeau - into the bloody yet beautiful labyrinth of human experience, of being.”

Writing Humans Play Light Beautiful Genius Pockets Bloody Human Experience Torches Labyrinth

Book:Living in Hope and History

Source: Living in Hope and History

About the Author

Born: November 20, 1923
Died: July 13, 2014
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 119

Related Topics

Writing Ifs People South Africa Humans Knows South Thinking Made Way White World Needs Would Be Children Country Feels Happens Literature Make Sense

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Telling Times: Writing and Living, 1950-2008Related source material

Conversations with Nadine GordimerRelated source material

Burger's DaughterRelated source material

Living in Hope and HistoryRelated source material

Selected StoriesRelated source material

Get a LifeRelated source material

The Quotable Gordimer; or, The Wit and Wisdom of Nadine GordimerRelated source material

The ConservationistRelated source material

The House GunRelated source material

July's PeopleRelated source material

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