Collected quotes, poems, thoughts, excerpts, and insights.

In August last year I decided to start posting some of my own one-liner’s (well, mostly one-liner's) at my facebook writer's page. They are quite varied in source, some come from my side of conversations (real and digital), some are from my novels in progress, some are thoughts I had about issues or current events, some are personal insights, and some as you will see are even poems. Now over a year later they have accumulated and I thought it might be good to share them in a collection, here, with you, starting at the beginning - I have dated them because sometimes it’s pertinent - to now.


There is a reason not everyone is a good writer; it takes a willingness to eviscerate yourself and use those bloody organs as ink and pen. (27/8/09)

Despair and hope, without either we could know neither. (1/9/09)

I have faith in a natural cycle that occurs with or without belief. (21/12/09)

Sometimes one's heart is the best tool a writer can have. (3/1/10)

Reject mediocrity, embrace discernment. (8/1/10)

Life is about choices, if you don't make them they will be made for you. (17/1/10)

Parents are gods when you're young, devils when you're a teen, and human when you leave their home, but become gods again when you have your own children and experience what they put up with. (20/1/10)

It's a big bad world, online and offline, and understanding it is the passport to true freedom. (23/1/10)

If you are a writer, you are a writer. Anyone can tag on anything to it for all manner of reasons, but the word itself remains inviolable. (25/1/10)

That which we quote is more often than not that which we most need to do. (28/1/10)

Whilst writing is mostly solitary, publishing is a team effort. (4/2/10)

Money can buy many things, but not honour. (9/2/10)

Time is always of the essence, the more you've had the less you have. (18/2/10)

There is no separation of humans from nature, we are a product of nature and still entirely reliant upon the Earth's well-being for our survival. (25/2/10)

Life is truly an absurd comedy of errors and laughter is its best soundtrack. (24/3/10 )

Failure forms the backbone of success. (14/3/10)

If you put everyone else first you'll always be last, but if you always put yourself first you will never last. (31/3/10)

Doubt can be very useful tool, fear the person who has no doubts for either they are a sociopath or lying to themselves. (11/8/10)

Sometimes you: /Have to do the wrong thing for the right reason,/The right thing for the wrong reason./Everything you can even though it makes no difference./Nothing at all and let it be.//One thing only that changes the world.//Laugh when you want to cry,/Cry when you want to laugh.//Forgive but do not forget,/Forget in-order to forgive.//Make no sense to make sense,/Make sense to not make sense./Indulge to not indulge,/Not indulge as an indulgence.//Have friends that are your enemies,/And enemies that are your friends./Trust no-one,/Not even yourself.//Hear only the moans./See only the shadows./Smell only the earth./Feel only the kiss./Taste only the sea.//Love and are still lonely,/Are alone and yet not lonely. (20/8/10)

All writers need editors. There are no exceptions to this simple fact not even to prove the rule. (29/8/10)

Why is there nothing so dangerous as a martyr? Because they are no longer around to make sure what they actually stood for is not corrupted and perverted into something else entirely. (3/9/10)

There is a place for all African writers to write whatever they want; publishers need to take note of this too. It's far past time that we started filling all the wide open gaps currently dominated by first world writers on our local bookstore shelves. (5/9/10)

Burning any books, be they religious or not, is a true sign of insanity and repression. (8/9/10)

If you're holding a pen everything is a story. (11/9/10)

Poem to an Idealistic Vegetarian: While they may not have a head,/Plants also experience dread./They will fear your tread,/When you come to rip them from their bed./So acknowledge without seeing red,/The living eat the dead./The living eat the dead./That much can always be said. (13/9/10)

I wouldn't recommend creative writing or any other art to anyone, unless their passion for it runs very deep; deep enough to sustain them through the agony of it all. (22/9/10)

Never underestimate the importance of building deep and well-rounded lead characters first, that way no-matter what situation you drop them into they will remain true to themselves and thus naturally enrich the story. (16/10/10)

Money is ultimately an archaic system of control and inequitable resource rationing. (24/9/10)

Creative writing regardless of format will always endure, because the mind's eye is more vivid and powerful than any movie can ever be. (24/10/10)

If you want to think outside the box you have to realise there is no box. (3/11/10)

Everyone lies, just some more than others./Everyone cries, alone or together./Everyone complies, in one way or another./Everyone defies, if just to feel alive./Everyone relies, on something or someone./Everyone sighs, in sadness or ecstasy./Everyone buy’s, it’s a trap of our own making./So no need to decry or further imply, as,/Everyone dies./And we all have far more, similarities than disparities. (14/11/10)

Life is what happens in-between writing; almost always a necessary inconvenience. (26/11/10)