Hisham Matar quotes - page 2

To me, writing is like singing in the most inappropriate place, singing as beautifully as you can on a bus or in a bank, where people least expect it, and trying to get them to want to listen. (Hisham Matar)
The romantic idea of the penniless writer is false. It's terrible. I hated being in debt. I hated the anxiety of not knowing whether we could pay our rent that month. Thankfully, I had a wife who was very supportive and had faith and shared my madness. View quote
Hisham Matar
I've very aware of my rootlessness. View quote
Hisham Matar
It is evident that Qaddafi is mentally unwell. Like Richard III, he has barricaded himself within lies. View quote
Hisham Matar
The Qaddafis, father and sons, speak the grammar of dictatorship: threats and bribery. View quote
Hisham Matar
It is easy to underestimate the demands of an open heart. View quote
Hisham Matar
When I'm writing, my mood is very good - and I love life. View quote
Hisham Matar
Like all novelists, I'm interested in the filters between reality and the imagination. View quote
Hisham Matar
All great art allows us this: a glimpse across the limits of our self. View quote
Hisham Matar
In the end, madness is worse than injustice, and justice far sweeter than freedom. View quote
Hisham Matar
Over the centuries, close-knit tribes have played an important part in the cohesion of Libyan society. (Hisham Matar)
When a dictatorship imprisons someone or makes them disappear, it's actually a very strategic move. We forget that. It's not as senseless as it seems. It's a way to silence someone, but also it's a way to silence their family as well, out of fear, and society by extension. View quote
Hisham Matar
I lost my father when I was 19, so the majority of my life has been under this cloud, and I have been full of the intention to find out what happened. View quote
Hisham Matar
Books have shown me horror and beauty. View quote
Hisham Matar
Gaddafi's ability to have survived so long rests on his convenient position in not being committed to a single ideology and his use of violence in such a theatrical way. View quote
Hisham Matar
Being my father's son is a kind of privilege. View quote
Hisham Matar
My parents were fairly laid-back, but there were certain things about which they were very strict. My brother and I were told never to turn away a person in need. And it didn't matter what we thought of their motives, whether they were truly in need or not. View quote
Hisham Matar
As part of the ritual of becoming a man, my maternal uncle, a judge, and his four sons, each older than me, took me deer hunting. View quote
Hisham Matar
We have defeated Gaddafi on the battlefield; now we must defeat him in our imagination. We must not allow his legacy to corrupt our dream. Let's keep focused on the true prize: unity, democracy, and the rule of law. Let's not seek revenge; that would diminish our future. View quote
Hisham Matar
I've never been particularly interested in genre distinctions. They seem to me more useful to a librarian than to a writer. View quote
Hisham Matar
I get a lot of energy from making things up, which is why I feel I'm a novelist. (Hisham Matar)
I think my generation's inability to speak in absolute terms when it comes to politics is a very positive thing; it's made us more nuanced, made us more complex. View quote
Hisham Matar
Audacity, hope, courage - the Libyans have these in abundance. But all those boring little things - like organization, building a committee - is hard; making decisions and moving ahead is hard. View quote
Hisham Matar
My father believed in armed struggle. View quote
Hisham Matar
There is a tendency to over-exaggerate and over-romanticise the place of a writer in a revolution. That bothers me. I think it's inappropriate. View quote
Hisham Matar