Damon Galgut is a South African novelist and playwright. He won the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel “The Promise” and was shortlisted for the award in 2003 and 2010. Galgut was born on November 12, 1963 in Pretoria, South Africa. His father came from a Jewish family and his mother converted to Judaism. At the age of six, he was diagnosed with lymphoma.
At the age of 17, Golgut wrote his first novel, A Sinless Season (1982). His novel In a Strange Room was shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. Galgut’s novel The Promise won the 2021 Booker Prize, making him the third South African writer to win the Booker Prize, after Nadine Gordimer and the two-time winner JM Coetzee.
True obsession requires an unconscious motive behind it. Damon Galgut
I work by hand using fountain pens in bound notebooks bought in India. Damon Galgut
For the first five years of my life, everything felt good. After that, many problems occurred on the family front. Damon Galgut
The only defense against raw, naked feeling is reason. Understanding makes grief more bearable. Damon Galgut
Generally speaking, the life of a writer is very boring. Damon Galgut
A journey is a gesture engraved in space that disappears as it forms. You go from one place to another, and to another, and there is no trace behind you that you were ever there. Damon Galgut
Apartheid is over, you see, and we’re dying together now, so close together. It’s just a part of life that we still need to address. Damon Galgut
No emotion should cross the class divide. Feelings can eliminate all hierarchies; there are dangers and joys in them. Damon Galgut
It’s always an attractive moment when curiosity takes over. Damon Galgut
How do you know she is a ghost? Many living people are also vague and adrift, and this is not a failure unique to the dead. Damon Galgut
There are many, oh, many monsters! Damon Galgut
Lives interpenetrate each other, and the past occupies the present. Damon Galgut
Things only happen once, never repeat, never come back. Except in memory. Damon Galgut
Maybe after a certain point, a person’s character defines itself and becomes fixed in your mind. Damon Galgut
Without love, only kindness remains. Damon Galgut
In a strange room, you have to empty yourself before you can sleep. Before you get ready for bed, what are you? When you want to sleep, you don’t. When you are filled with sleep, you have never been like this. Damon Galgut
Oddly enough, certain people, often random individuals, can create significant meaning in your thoughts and dreams. Damon Galgut
If love is given so carelessly, without considering the consequences, then what’s the point of it? Damon Galgut
Honesty and fairness are not always the same thing. Damon Galgut
Literature takes human nature as its subject to the fullest extent. That’s the kind of writing that interests me. Damon Galgut
