21 Head, A Gesture of Belonging. Letters from Bessie Head, 1965-1979, ed. Randolph Vigne, London, Heinemann, 1991, p.59-60.

I have had to discipline myself to stay a week end on without food. And yet somehow hold my mind together. There have been days and days when I've had to give all the food to my son and then sit up the whole night typing my book…There's nothing like outright hunger over a prolonged period to make you lie back and stare deeply at life. I thought I should grasp this for the future.