As one of the most influential figures in South African media, Khaya Dlanga is known for instigating discussions on both light-hearted and deep topics. In his latest book To Quote Myself, Khaya recalls entertaining and moving stories about his heritage, his childhood in the Transkei, his times spent as a stand-up comedian and making it big in his marketing career. We sat down with Khaya to chat about his memoir and steal some writing tips from the successful author!
GLAMOUR: What was it like to open up about yourself so unashamedly when writing
Khaya: It was rather daunting because you have to decide what to put in, what to leave out. Will it make sense? Will it resonate? Is it boring? Is it too much? It all leaves you with all sorts of self-doubt, to be honest. I think that all that self-doubt leaves you with nothing but honesty. It is all somewhat terrifying.
GLAMOUR: What is the biggest compliment someone can give you about your writing?
Khaya: I don’t think I ever want to be told that I am a good writer or I write well. So the biggest compliments for me are when people say that I made them feel something. I made them angry, sad, cry, laugh, happy. The best writing for me is one that produces emotions from the reader. The reader must feel. I got a call from a former minister who read my book who told me how much he loved the book and said I should never stop telling African stories. I don’t even know how he got my number.
GLAMOUR: Which authors inspire you?
Khaya: Ernest Hemingway. When I read his T he Old Man and the Sea and made me feel sad for a fish, I was in absolute awe.
GLAMOUR: What feelings or experiences would you like readers to take from your books?
Khaya: It’s very difficult to say, I think that I want each reader to take away what they take away. I don’t think that it is up to the writer to decide what the reader must feel.
GLAMOUR: As one of the most influential people in South Africa, why do you think your writing is so important for the people of our country?
Khaya: I don’t know if it is important. I do think that I was one of the fortunate few who have had the opportunity to tell a story about a certain generation at a particular point in time in history. I told a story that could be about any other person, but that person happened to have been me. It’s just that those kinds of stories are hardly ever told. I think it is important for Africans to tell their stories, I don’t think that my writing is important; Africans stories are.
GLAMOUR: As a columnist, how do you strike the balance between being opinionated and informative while not crossing any boundaries in your writing? Have you ‘crossed the line’ before?
Khaya: I think that in my early years I did cross the line while trying too hard to be funny and as a result completely misrepresented myself, where I happily lived the patriarchal standards without thinking twice. I think that is my biggest failure. Sexism is endemic in our society, and many of us, myself included, are so blind to it that when we engage in it we are not even conscious, nor willing to acknowledge that is what we are doing.
GLAMOUR: What is your cure for writer’s block?
Khaya: The fact that there is a deadline. Like now.
GLAMOUR: What can we expect from you next?
Khaya: I would be lying if I said there is something that I knew. I never know. I would love to write a book of fiction though. But fiction terrifies me because you have to create characters, events, people, their psychological make up and so on so forth.
