Alex la Guma > Quotes

“The pub, like pubs all over the world, was a place for debate and discussion, for the exchange of views and opinions, for argument and for the working out of problems. It was a forum, a parliament, a fountain of wisdom and a cesspool of nonsense, it was a centre for the lost and the despairing, where cowards absorbed dutch courage out of small glasses and leaned against the shiny, scratched and polished mahogany counter for support against the crushing burdens of insignificant lives. Where the disillusioned gained temporary hope, where acts of kindness were considered and murders planned.”
― Alex La Guma, A Walk in the Night and Other Stories

“I don't know. I got nothing. No house, no people, no place. Maybe that's troubles. Don't I say?”
― Alex La Guma, A Walk in the Night and Other Stories

“He looked right through them, refusing to see them, nursing a little growth of anger the way one caresses the beginnings of a toothache with the tip of the tongue.”
― Alex La Guma, A Walk in the Night and Other Stories