I write about the human condition, as a South African. I sometimes see South Africa with the spectacles of the past and there will then be a political content in my writing.

In 'Lion King,' the music is brilliant. The CGI is amazing.

That's the beauty of art: art is universal.

Very rarely in the life of an actor and a performer do you do something you truly believe in, do you do something you are absolutely proud of.

All over the world, there is someone sitting in a cell because he or she is not allowed freedom of expression.

My love, my passion, my everything is this continent of Africa. I have always celebrated African humanity.

I did 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for 34 years.

Every time there is a movie that tells a South African story, it is done by someone who must be taught the right way of pronouncing 'Sawubona.' Enough is enough.

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.

When I tell a story, I have to tell it honestly.

This is the problem I have: I write a play and I give it to a director and they say, 'I'll do it one condition: if you play the role.'

Our job as artists, we believe, is not to make changes in society. We don't have the ability to do that. We reflect life. We are the mirror of the society to look into. Our job is to raise questions, but we have no answers.

I had to look at white people as fellow South Africans and fellow partners in building a new South Africa.

If we'd lived in England or America we'd have told stories abut our lives and nobody would have called it protest theatre. But the reality of South Africa was the arrests and detentions and oppression - we could not escape that, so we decided to take it on.

In Australia, I almost became a counsellor. At the end of each performance there would be a queue of sobbing people backstage. They all wanted to explain why they left South Africa.

We haven't got those dreams: 'I wish to become doctor or a lawyer.' Black people in South Africa have been barred in doing anything that would articulate their cause.

You can't always play the hero. You have to play the villain.

I was the generation who hated the white man, despised him, wanted to shoot him.

I always say my first break was a dead man's break.

I have never been attracted to television work. Even to appear in series and soapies. I have always appeared in theatre and major movies, writing plays and other things.

I believe strongly that the word 'protest' is no excuse for bad work. The artist must create.

My stories are about humanity, about the challenges of surviving and the constant fight against ignorance, inhumanity and complacency.

Someone once asked me what I missed most. I said, 'My youth.' I've never been a boy who could run around, go crazy, do this, try that. There wasn't time for that.

My grandfather told me our history through his stories about all the great Zulu battles.

Whenever I play Shakespeare, I keep thinking, 'how did this Englishman know so much about me?'

The only reference in my life is my life, and it's my life experience. It's my environment. It's my community. I've not made that for books.

We never deal with propaganda. We never deal with politics. We never deal with newspaper headlines. We deal with the harsh realities of our lives. We will only comment when there is more bread to eat, more space in which to move, time in which to open your mouth and sing. As long as these things have not happened, we do not talk about politics.

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

Yes, we have the judiciary, the Constitution, we're fighting racism on a daily basis, but these are all state efforts and are not the efforts of the individual. The individual has to commit to change, the individual has to look at the past and take accountability of the past; for the wound to heal we have to dress it together.

A telenovela is a story that's like a soapie, but it has a beginning, middle and an end.

You can give me any of Shakespeare's plays and I'll tell you a parallel African folktale.

I will always vote. I have done so, ever since 1994.

I used to wonder, when my grandmother would tell me what the wolf said to the jackal, how these animals can talk. And, she would say, 'in my stories, animals talk. Shut up and listen.'

I spent 51 years under apartheid. I don't imagine suffering. I know it.

Shakespeare examines how democracy is built.

And I'm part of the generation of South Africans who feel we're lucky to be alive.

Everything you do on stage is always a response to something, not the next line.

I'm Dad at home, not John Kani.

Any older actor knows the last great mountain to climb is to play King Lear and now, if I ever play Lear, I will have done the pre-preparation because I had to go into the play and read it over and over again.

When I am offered work, I am very selective.

When I was asked to write a concept for a telenovela, I didn't underestimate my non-experience in the field.