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" My mama loved books; I became fascinated by the wonderful stories that came out of these things she held in her hand - and started to make them up myself. "
Wilbur Smith
Wonderful
Myself
She
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" I know it's politically incorrect but I enjoy things like the kick boxing and cock fighting. "
Wilbur Smith
Like
Fighting
Enjoy
" 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
Green
Change
Money
" 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
" 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
Write
Books
Eyes
" My absolute favorite pieces are 'Rhapsody in Blue' and 'Begin the Beguine.' I play these when I am working. "
Wilbur Smith
Blue
Play
Pieces
" Real men read my books. "
Wilbur Smith
Read
Real
Men
" 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
Reach
Family
Page
" 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
Now
Think
Money
" I read a lot of biographies and books with an African background. "
Wilbur Smith
Books
Read
African
" 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
God
Myself
Worth
" There's nothing so aphrodisiacal for a woman as money and success. "
Wilbur Smith
Money
Success
Nothing
" 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
" 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
" I love the sea as much as I love the veldt of Africa. "
Wilbur Smith
Love
I Love
Much
" 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
" My father was my god. His approval was so valuable to me. "
Wilbur Smith
Valuable
Father
His
" I have never had too much trouble for creative ideas to spring up in my mind. "
Wilbur Smith
Ideas
Too Much
Spring
" 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
Sea
Love
Sunshine
" 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
Government
Black
People
" 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
Back
Money
Good
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
Mother
Best
American
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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 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
Africa
Adventure
He