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.

I'm Dad at home, not John Kani.

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

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

Shakespeare examines how democracy is built.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.