Wilbur Smith Quotes

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Wilbur Smith

Profession : Novelist

Birth : January 9, 1933

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

You don't turn out as many books as I did then by sitting around, being cozy with the family.

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

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

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

Wilbur Smith