- [on Nelson Mandela] He was a revolutionary. He took up arms, he was willing to fight, to kill and be killed, he was willing to die - as he said in his trial. He was tough in that sense. And he was thoughtful, intelligent, and he spoke for a movement. His strength came from his ability to work with many people, to embrace the visions and outlooks of other people, to speak to everybody, and to articulate the consciousness of a whole generation.
- [observation, 2014, on changes in his homeland] The people and oppression are the past. The triumph, really, is in transforming that negativity, the negative energy of that time, into something positive. That's where the constitution comes in. That's where the progress that we've been making in South Africa becomes so significant.
- I was lying in a hospital bed in London, recovering from having been blown up by a car bomb that was intended to kill me. It cost me my right arm and the sight of my left eye. And recovering in London, I received a note from a friend of mine. It said, 'Don't worry, comrade. We will avenge you'. And I thought to myself, 'Avenge me? Are we going to cut off their arms? Are we going to blind the people who did this? Is that what we're fighting for?'
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