Quotes by Wilbur Smith - Page 2 | QuoteForever

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Let it simply be said that we know more about the details of the hours immediately before and the actual death of Jesus, in and near Jerusalem, than we know about the death of any other one man in all the ancient world.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Jesus
Men
Details
Copy Quote
I read all of Rider Haggard's books. For me he had the romance of Africa with a little bit of mysticism. I'm delighted to be looked on as his heir and be categorised as an adventure novelist because that's exactly what I am.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Adventure
Book
Delighted
Haggard
Mysticism
Romance
Africa
Heir
Exactly What
Rider
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Herbert, my father, was born in Britain but went out to Africa in his teens to join his father and built up an 18,000-acre ranch in what was then Northern Rhodesia, providing work for the locals. He was my hero when I was a boy.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Boys
Britain
Father
Hero
Providing
Teens
Africa
Herbert
Join
Northern
Ranch
Copy Quote
I've been associated with Macmillan for over 45 years. I'd like to thank them for their continued commitment to my backlist and I look forward to continuing to work with them as they publish my next novel, 'Vicious Circle' in 2013.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Continuing
Vicious
Associated
Circle
Thank
Copy Quote
This first print run of the first edition of my first novel, 'When The Lion Feeds.' back in 1964, is so rare it can fetch several thousand pounds at auction. I always wanted to be an author, and I decided to write about what I knew.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Decided
Fetch
Novel
Pounds
Print
Thousand
Auction
Author
Rare
Edition
Feeds
Lion
Several
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There is no quick way of making money. People come to you with tips for the races or offer the latest Ponzi scheme, but I can see them coming a mile off. I just go with the adage that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Making Money
Tips
Good Money People
Adage
Be True
Scheme
Latest
Mile
Quick
Races
Sounds
Copy Quote
I'm not perfect and I know it. I've done all sorts of things that are frowned upon these days - big-game hunting, fishing. I still enjoy fishing but I don't kill warm-blooded animals any more - I make an exception with birds sometimes.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Exception
Fishing
Hunting
Not Perfect
Animals
Frowned
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I think money is essential to happiness and right now I wouldn't want to be anyone other than Wilbur Smith - I've had a fantastic life, rewarded far more heavily than I deserve. Maybe I'd like to be J. K. Rowling, but I'll settle for second best.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Deserve
Fantastic
Life Happiness Best
Essential
Rewarded
Rowling
Settle
Smith
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The first novel I wrote was a monster - clocking in at 180,000 words - but it died a death, a death it deserved. It was called 'The Gods First Make Mad.' It was a good title, but it was the only good thing about the book. I didn't let that put me off.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Book
Died
Mad
Novel
Death Good Me
Deserved
Good Thing
Monster
Title
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My family wasn't terribly affluent and looked upon money very carefully as something that had to be saved, not spent. My father built the ducting that took air into the copper mines and made about 6 d a yard in the Thirties, which was good money back then.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Affluent
Air
Copper
Father
Mines
Saved
Yards
Family Good Money
Carefully
Terribly
Thirties
Yard
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I live in Cape Town but my favourite holiday destination is Hermanus, a little seaside town about a 90-minute drive away, over the pass and down to the sea, on the sunshine coast. It's where I love to escape to with my wife for a weekend every now and again.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Destination
Favourite
Holiday
Sea
Sunshine
Cape
Escape
Pass
Copy Quote
Usually halfway through a book I have a serious depression, so I go on safari on my ranch in South Africa, or fishing off my island in the Seychelles. When I come back and re-read it, I think: 'What was all that about, Smith? It's fine, just get on with it.'
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Book
Fishing
Halfway
Islands
South Africa
Thinking
Africa
Island
Ranch
Re-Read
Smith
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The mistake the apartheid government made was they gave the black people nothing, so they had nothing to lose. But now a lot of the former freedom-fighters are big-time capitalists. They've been given directorships in every major company. They're billionaires!
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Government
Apartheid
Black
Company
Former
Given
Mistake
Billionaires
Capitalists
Gave
Major
Lose
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The whole structure of African government, as far back as we know, was based on tyranny. One guy ran the show. Chiefs like Chaka and Mzilikazi committed terrible atrocities. That is the tradition from which modern African rulers spring. It won't change easily overnight.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Atrocities
Chiefs
Committed
Ran
Rulers
Spring
Structure
Tyranny
African
Easily
Overnight
Copy Quote
I work on my novels wherever I have a PC, and I have four or five places around the world where I do have a PC. These days you can just slip a little flash drive into your top pocket, fly for 12 hours, come to another place, plug it into a computer and you are away again.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Computer
Flash
Pc
Plug
Slip
Wherever
Copy Quote
You know that feeling when you finish a final exam and you think, 'I never want to do that again'? Well I have the same feeling when I finish a novel. Each time I say, 'I think I may retire now' and then after six months the ideas start to churn again. I could never stop.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Exam
Feelings
Ideas
Months
Novel
Now And Then
Six
Thinking
Retire
Each Time
Finish
Never Stop
Copy Quote
People don't really know themselves until they're 30. Like most people nowadays, I went to university, got a degree and wandered for a bit. I trained to be a chartered accountant, which I didn't much enjoy, and it was only slowly that the idea of becoming a creative writer gelled.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Creative
Ideas
People
University
Accountant
Degree
Slowly
Nowadays
Trained
Wandered
Copy Quote
Write for yourself, not for a perceived audience. If you do, you'll mostly fall flat on your face, because it's impossible to judge what people want. And you have to read. That's how you learn what is good writing and what is bad. Then the main thing is application. It's hard work.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Application
Fall
Good Writing
Hard Work
Writing
Work Good Hard Work
Work Good Face
Main Thing
Mostly
Perceived
Copy Quote
I'm not a prophet I can only use historical reality to come to a view of the future, and my view is that Africa will return to being African and not European. The advent of colonialism was foreign to the country itself, but it will return to what it was before the Europeans arrived.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Country
Reality
Views
Copy Quote
For the past few years my fans have made it very clear that they would like to read my novels and revisit my family of characters faster than I can write them. For them, I am willing to make a change to my working methods so the stories in my head can reach the page more frequently.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Faster
Frequently
Page
Past Few Years
Revisit
Copy Quote
I'm not a prophet; I can only use historical reality to come to a view of the future, and my view is that Africa will return to being African and not European. The advent of colonialism was foreign to the country itself, but it will return to what it was before the Europeans arrived.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Advent
Colonialism
Historical
Prophet
Reality
Return
Africa
African
Itself
Europeans
Foreign
View
Copy Quote
I go on a hunting safari at least once a year to Botswana, which is fantastic because we have a huge area of wilderness entirely to ourselves. My island covers roughly 55 acres, which again I have to myself, with nearly half a kilometre of private beach with my own jetties and boats.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Acres
Beach
Hunting
Islands
Wilderness
Myself Own My Own
Boats
Nearly
Covers
Entirely
Island
Once A Year
Roughly
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I'm not a good father and they're not children any more; the eldest is in his fifties. My relationship with their mothers broke down and, because of what the law was, they went with their mothers and were imbued with their mothers' morality in life and they were not my people any more.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Inspiring
Broke
Children
Eldest
Father
Good Father
Morality
Mothers Day
Life Good Relationship
Fifties
Copy Quote
I have done everything I have ever wanted to do. I have swum with tiger sharks, been charged by lions and elephants. I have been shot three times, chased by crocodiles and, God be praised, I've made enough money that I can continue to do all the things I want to for as long as I am able.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Elephants
Lions
Sharks
Shot
God Money I Am
Charged
Enough Money
Praised
Tiger
Copy Quote
At the age of 12 I won the school prize for Best English Essay. The prize was a copy of Somerset Maugham's 'Introduction To Modern English And American Literature.' To this day I keep it on the shelf between my collection of Forester's works and the little urn that contains my mother's ashes.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Age
American Literature
Ashes
Introduction
Literature
Mother
Prize
School
Collection
Contains
Copy
Essay
Shelf
Copy Quote
I used to own an island in the Seychelles and had a big boat there and one day I came across some Somali pirates who were passing by on their way to re-provision their boat. They didn't even acknowledge me - which is unheard of among sailors - and it was like looking into the eyes of a black mamba.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Acknowledge
Boat
One Day
Passing
Somali
Unheard
Eyes Me Day
Among
Eyes
Island
Pirates
Sailors
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I wanted to be a great white hunter, a prospector for gold, or a slave trader. But then, when I was eight, my parents sent me to a boarding school in South Africa. It was the equivalent of a British public school with cold showers, beatings and rotten food. But what it also had was a library full of books.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Book
Cold
Eight
Gold
Public School
Rotten
School
Showers
Slave
South Africa
Africa
Food Great Me
Boarding
Boarding School
Great Food Me
Equivalent
Hunter
Sent
Trader
Copy Quote
Quite frankly, I think political correctness is the worst form of censorship. You're not allowed to speak your mind unless you're black, or unless you're a terrorist, or unless you're an Arab or a minority people. Then you can say what you like. But if you are like a lot of us you are not supposed to say certain things.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Black
Censorship
Certain
Correctness
Form
People
Political
Political Correctness
Speak
Speak Your Mind
Terrorist
Thinking
Worst
Allowed
Quite
Arab
Certain Things
Frankly
Minority
Quite Frankly
Supposed
Unless
Copy Quote
Politicians all over the world cater to domestic vote banks. They will spend only on what their constituents want. So unless there is a grass root green movement in a nation the politicians will not be willing to spend money on curbing emissions. More awareness is needed amongst the people to effect the real change in how governments spend.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Government
Constituents
Emissions
Grass
Green
Real
Roots
Vote
Change Money World
Amongst
Banks
Cater
Domestic
Politicians
Effect
Governments
Root
Copy Quote
I have been blessed in many ways, and one of those is to have been born in Africa, for me a great treasure house of stories. I have been researching it since my infancy; reading about it, talking to men and women who have spent their lives in this land, living it as I have and loving it as I do. I write almost entirely from my own experience.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Blessed
Infancy
Men And Women
Treasure
Experience Men Women
Africa
Entirely
Experience Women Men
Researching
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A man follows the path laid out for him. He does his duty to God and his King. He does what he must do, not what pleases him. God's truth, boy, what kind of world would this be if every man did what pleased him alone? Who would plough the fields and reap the harvest, if every man had the right to say, 'I don't want to do that.' In this world there is a place for every man, but every man must know his place.
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Kings
Men
Boys
Copy Quote
It was this same Jesus, the Christ who, among many other remarkable things, said and repeated something which, proceeding from any other being would have condemned him at once as either a bloated egotist or a dangerously unbalanced person...when He said He himself would rise again from the dead, the third day after He was crucified, He said something that only a fool would dare say, if he expected longer the devotion of any disciples-unless He was sure He was going to rise. No founder of any world religion known to men ever dared say a thing like that!
Wilbur Smith / Novelist
Jesus
Men
World Religions
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