I worry about hiding things too much. It can become, and often perpetuates, the political culture of a nation. That's where the media and arts play such an important role. When established criticism gives rise to such a level of horror stories that people can't absorb them any more, the arts are able to create the distance, and conversely ensure the immediacy, of such stories.'

Ariel Dorfman, Chilean writer and activist visiting the country to meet the Truth and Reconciliation Committee Commissioners, in an interview in the Cape Times, July 2

'If culture becomes the lodestar of development, if it becomes one of the top priorities on national and international agendas, we shall have preserved the only part of our human heritage that is as yet unspoiled - the virgin lands of the future.'

Javier Perez de Cuellar, quoted in the Basa Mission Statement leaflet.

"Create or die"

Anonymous