Wilbur Smith Quotes & Sayings

They have been taught nothing but destruction and learned nothing except that a man's desires can be achieved simply by killing anybody who stands in his way. — Wilbur Smith

chariots that I would design with — Wilbur Smith

I hate politics. I like to write about it, but to get involved in it, to try and make a lot of ignorant people do what you want them to do, waste of time. Go and write a book. It's more important and it'll last longer. — Wilbur Smith

When it comes to fashion, even the most sensible woman is not to be trusted. — Wilbur Smith

No profit was too small to despise; no loss was too small to abhor. — Wilbur Smith

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

They say if you drink Zambezi water with your mother's milk, you are always a slave of Africa, and I am. — Wilbur Smith

She is the epitome of injustice, is my mistress. I never sulk, I am no glutton, and at that time I was barely thirty years of age, although to a fourteen-year-old anyone above twenty is an ancient, and I admit that, when it comes to food, I do have the refined tastes of a connoisseur. — Wilbur Smith

Litigation only makes lawyers fat. — Wilbur Smith

I have never had too much trouble for creative ideas to spring up in my mind. — Wilbur Smith

The fact that I had been on the point of making a similar heroic gesture was quite ignored, and this only increased my irritation. — Wilbur Smith

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

The best cure for racism is to have somebody shoot at you. Man, it does not matter then what color the arse is that comes to save yours-black or white, you're ready to give it a big fat kiss. — Wilbur Smith

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

we arrived at the army's main encampment all — Wilbur Smith

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

Wave of sound swept over the ring as every man in the convocation shouted together. — Wilbur Smith

The really disturbing thing about Somalia is that in a country where there are few economic opportunities, pirates are perceived as glamorous and are held in awe by young boys who aspire to their lifestyle. — Wilbur Smith

Out of the chaos and darkness of Nun rose Ammon-Ra, He-Who-Creates-Himself. I watched Ammon-Ra stroke his generative member, masturbating and spurting out his seminal seed in mighty waves that left the silver smear that we know as the Milky Way across the dark void. From this seed were generated Geb and Nut, the earth and the heaven. — Wilbur Smith

As they slithered up the muddy bank, scores of tiny silver fish that had been feasting on the open wounds were slow to relinquish their hold and were drawn out with the carcasses. Stranded upon the mud-banks, they flopped and quivered like stars that had fallen to earth. — Wilbur Smith

Real men read my books. — Wilbur Smith

but death is the ultimate purpose of life. — Wilbur Smith

I'm a feminist. The women in my books in recent years have been powerful characters and I love to see a woman with a cute bottom walking past. — Wilbur Smith

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

Beware of your most implacable enemy-yourself. — Wilbur Smith

Every time one of my books sells a million copies in paperback, Pan Macmillan gives me a gold statuette of Pan. I have about 20 of them. — Wilbur Smith

I was sitting in the Temple of Karnak on the Nile, as the sun was going down, and I was all alone, and the great Hypostyle Hall was full of shadows and ghosts of the past, and suddenly I heard this little voice saying "my name is Taita, write my story" ... and if you believe that you'll believe anything. — Wilbur Smith

Silence as they crept in towards the island. Hal navigated by the compass, — Wilbur Smith

I know it's politically incorrect but I enjoy things like the kick boxing and cock fighting. — Wilbur Smith

They say I'm worth either €200 million, €100 million, €50 million or €10 million, but that's something between God, the HMRC and myself. — Wilbur Smith

Your ambition has cost you dear, sir, Hal said, trying to keep a rein on his fury. In victory a true warrior must show forbearance, his father had once said. He must not give in to the base instinct for revenge. — Wilbur Smith

I read a lot of biographies and books with an African background. — Wilbur Smith

All my characters have got a big slice of me in them. A big piece of me, because it's my dialogue and this is the way I think and talk. — Wilbur Smith

But those set to guard a treasure, are too often those who loot it. — Wilbur Smith

There are people out there with an eye on my hard-earned cash who think that I am a pushover. I am not! — Wilbur Smith

I want to be seen as a good storyteller. I'm a manipulator as well. — Wilbur Smith

My absolute favorite pieces are 'Rhapsody in Blue' and 'Begin the Beguine.' I play these when I am working. — Wilbur Smith

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

When I vacate this sack of old bones I won't care what you do with it. Bury or burn it but don't make much fuss. — Wilbur Smith

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

There was always a pass through the reef where the sweet water inhibited the growth of the coral. As — Wilbur Smith

I believe that a healthy body breeds a healthy mind. I am 74 years old now and my wife, Niso, is 38 years younger than me. She absolutely insists that I take regular exercise with her. — Wilbur Smith

I also know how ruthless and reckless young women can be when their ovaries overheat. My darling little Tehuti's Gonads had caught fire at the first sight of him. I could think of no feasible way to quench the flames. — Wilbur Smith

Failure makes success so much sweeter, and allows you to thumb your nose at the crowds. — Wilbur Smith

isn't that great!' But the — Wilbur Smith

We have worked all day to tidy the mess you have made. — Wilbur Smith

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

The first story I ever sold was to 'Argosy' magazine, which no longer exists. That issue also contained work by several other more celebrated writers, like Ray Bradbury - so I felt I had at least one toe on the ladder. — Wilbur Smith

I've eaten lion, leopard, crocodile, python. I don't recommend lion. It tastes exactly like when a tomcat comes into your house and sprays. Snake and crocodile are great - a cross between lobster and chicken. — Wilbur Smith

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

I am a closet birdwatcher. I can identify Southern African species, but it irks me I can barely tell a jay from a blackbird in the U.K. — Wilbur Smith

I write my books in my head, and not in a specific study with a view. The view is from my inner eyes. — Wilbur Smith

they chewed on the cud. — Wilbur Smith

Every one of them was armed, every one a trained soldier who had killed and would not hesitate to kill again. — Wilbur Smith

They do say that socialism is the ideal philosophy-just as long as you have capitalists to pay for it. — Wilbur Smith

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

Despite the fact that I spend a lot of time in London, Switzerland and New York, Africa is the place I know and love best, and my heart will always lie here. — Wilbur Smith

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

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

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

attempt to escape, — Wilbur Smith

As regards to personal safety, you do have to be careful not to put yourself at risk when travelling in South Africa. You don't want to go out exploring at night, for example. — Wilbur Smith

Patriotism is a myth conceived by those old rogues to draw us into the infernal game. Let them fight as they will, but we want no part of it. — Wilbur Smith

Yet such is the perversity of human nature that I hungered for what I could never have and dreamed of the impossible. — Wilbur Smith

Rage makes a man sick, my son. It spoils his appetite for life and keeps him from sleep at night. We cannot change our world, so we must look for the good things in life and enjoy those to the full. — Wilbur Smith

You're too old for this type of living,' he told — Wilbur Smith

A cynic had defined aid as simply the system by which poor white people in rich countries gave money to rich black people in poor countries to put into Swiss bank accounts. — Wilbur Smith

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

To me, my characters are more real than most people I meet. — Wilbur Smith

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

Fly for me, Bird of the Sun. — Wilbur Smith

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

I don't know how many lions and leopards I've shot. I've shot two elephants, which was enough - never again. It's a melancholy and moving thing to hunt an elephant. It's like shooting an old man. — Wilbur Smith

Sometimes it is best for men not to attempt to interfere with destiny. Our prayers can be answered in ways which we do not expect and do not welcome. — Wilbur Smith

Authors can only soft sell the environment. Create a wonderful story around the environment involving the characters that leaves a lasting impression on the reader's mind. — Wilbur Smith

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

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

Duplicity thy name is woman! — Wilbur Smith

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

I never set out to write literature; I set out to tell stories. And some of my work may be very raunchy and very bloodthirsty - but life, for me, is a violent thing. — Wilbur Smith

My first novel was rejected by some of the most eminent publishers in the world. Starting again was a real wrench. — Wilbur Smith

Literature throws us many great heroes. Real life invariably outdoes them. — Wilbur Smith

Should five slaves dictate to a king? If five baboons bark, must the black-maned lion tremble? — Wilbur Smith

I shot my first lion at the age of 14 when a pride threatened my father's livestock while he was away on holiday. — Wilbur Smith

I love the sea as much as I love the veldt of Africa. — Wilbur Smith

The tranquilizers he had been given had worn off, leaving him with a drug hangover and a bitter grudge against the entire world. — Wilbur Smith

to, for every man present appreciated precisely where that challenge was aimed. 'We all know how this works. No prey, no pay. Well we ain't going to get our hands on no prize stuck here like — Wilbur Smith

Cape Town's beaches are superb and while the water on the Atlantic side is damn cold, it's very pleasant on the other side. Bring your golf clubs if you play - Cape Town has some fabulous golf courses. — Wilbur Smith

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

Taita,' she called to me, 'sing with me!' And when I obeyed she smiled with pleasure. My voice was one of the many reasons that, whenever she was able, she kept me near her; my tenor complemented her lovely soprano to perfection. We sang one of the old peasant love songs that I had taught her, and which was still one of her favourites: My heart flutters up like a wounded quail when I see my beloved's face and my cheeks bloom like the dawn sky to the sunshine of his smile — Wilbur Smith

If I have to die, then it's best to do so before I see everything I love, the land, the animals, the people, all of it destroyed. — Wilbur Smith

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

I don't want children. Why should I let some strange little monster into my life to destroy what to me is a perfect set-up? — Wilbur Smith

It's probably true that everyone has a book in them, although it may not be a very good one. — Wilbur Smith

Sometimes you are garrulous, Taita.' Pharaoh was less than captivated by my lecture on the palace architecture. 'Get on — Wilbur Smith

War is the game played by old men with the lives of the young — Wilbur Smith

My mother-in-law speaks not a word of English. I speak not a word of Tajiki. So I smile at her ingratiatingly and she fixes me with a beady eye. — Wilbur Smith

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

My father was my god. His approval was so valuable to me. — Wilbur Smith

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