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" I think one of the most poignant things is unrequited love and loneliness. "
Wilbur Smith
Love
Think
Loneliness
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" What I like about writing is the sense of godlike power it gives you. "
Wilbur Smith
Writing
About
Like
" 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
Start
Ideas
Know
" 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
Work
Me
Never
" There's nothing so aphrodisiacal for a woman as money and success. "
Wilbur Smith
Money
Success
Nothing
" 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
Southern
Closet
I Am
" My first novel was rejected by some of the most eminent publishers in the world. Starting again was a real wrench. "
Wilbur Smith
First
World
Starting
" 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
Me
Gold
Great
" 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
Words
Book
Me
" 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
Story
Create
Environment
" I have never had too much trouble for creative ideas to spring up in my mind. "
Wilbur Smith
Ideas
Too Much
Spring
" 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
Think
Me
Talk
" You don't turn out as many books as I did then by sitting around, being cozy with the family. "
Wilbur Smith
Cozy
Family
Sitting
" 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
Believe
Wife
Mind
" 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
Boy
Work
Hero
" 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
Good
Money
People
" It's probably true that everyone has a book in them, although it may not be a very good one. "
Wilbur Smith
May
True
Book
" 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
Elephant
Know
Man
" I still get enormous pleasure and a sense of fulfillment out of writing a book that I'm proud of. I see myself as a bit like a jewel-maker who can sit back and admire his work. "
Wilbur Smith
Writing
Proud
Book
" 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
Night
Safety
Want
" I grew up in Rhodesia on my father's ranch and every year he used to take us on safari in some remote area of the wilderness. "
Wilbur Smith
Father
Year
Used
" 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
Experience
Men
Women
" 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
Life
Me
Perfect
" 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
Eye
Smile
Speak
" 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
Government
Tyranny
Know
" Literature throws us many great heroes. Real life invariably outdoes them. "
Wilbur Smith
Heroes
Life
Real
" 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
First
Lion
Run
" 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
Creative
Got
Enjoy
" 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
First
Work
Story
" Many people have compared me to the Victorian adventure writer, Rider Haggard. I accept that as a compliment. As a boy growing up in Central Africa I read all Haggard's African novels. "
Wilbur Smith
Boy
Me
Growing Up
" 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
Birds
Not Perfect
Know