Pensativities Quotes

“And that is what a writer is—a traveller between identities, a smuggler of souls.”
― Mia Couto, Pensativities: Selected Essays

“The greatest misfortune for a poor country is that, instead of producing wealth, it produces rich people. But rich people without wealth. In fact, it would be better to call them moneyed rather than rich: a rich person is one who possesses the means of production. A rich person is someone who generates money and provides jobs. A moneyed person is someone who quite simply has some cash. Or rather, he thinks he has. For, in reality, it’s the cash that has him.”
― Mia Couto, Pensativities: Selected Essays

“On one occasion, someone asked a famous American musician, Ben Harper, this question: “We’ve heard you now have a new drummer in your band. Tell me something: is he black?” And Harper replied: “I don’t know, I’ve never asked him.”
― Mia Couto, Pensativities: Selected Essays

“A Mercedes or a BMW can’t make full use of its lustre, as it busily swerves to avoid the very convex buses along very concave roads. The existence of good roads would depend upon another type of wealth. A wealth that might serve the city.”
― Mia Couto, Pensativities: Selected Essays