News at Eleven (Back Page): I think after a while the shadows

in the wall becomes as intriguing as a painting by Rembrandt or Breugel. The bird sounds that one hears, maybe from time to time, nearly--could be read or could heard as sonnets. I think that had a lot to do with it. I do think that one loses sense of oneself. It's kind of a prolonged process of questioning and re-evaluating the sense of oneself--the I, the person. And perhaps recognizing that it is futile to hang on to a certain number of concepts one had of oneself, and to let go. In other words one is trying to build some kind of a freedom that cannot be attained by those who keep you in prison. But it's not something I would want to encourage. I think if you're going to do that you would rather go into a monastery. [--Breyten Breytenbach]

from Democracy Now!: A Conversation With South African Poet and Anti-Apartheid Activist Breyten Breytenbach on His Own Imprisonment, South Africa's "Failed Revolution," Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama

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