Hisham Matar Quotes

• Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.

  Hisham Matar

  Grief, Echoes, Want

  Hisham Matar (2007). “In the Country of Men”, p.167, Penguin UK

  45 Copy quote

• Dreams have consequences. There is no turning back. A revolution is not a painless march to the gates of freedom and justice. It is a struggle between rage and hope, between the temptation to destroy and the desire to build. Its temperament is desperate. It is a tormented response to the past, to all that has happened, the recalled and unrecalled injustices - for the memory of a revolution reaches much further back than the memory of its protagonists.

  Hisham Matar

  Dream, Memories, Struggle

  "The Consequences of Dreams" by Hisham Matar, www.newyorker.com. July 31, 2014.

  11 Copy quote

• Books written out of fire give me a great deal of pleasure. You get the sense that the world for these writers could not have continued if the book hadn't been written. When you come across a book like that it is a privilege.

  Hisham Matar

  Book, Fire, Giving

  9 Copy quote

• Nothing is more acceptable than what we are born into.

  Hisham Matar

  Born, Acceptable

  "Naima" by Hisham Matar, www.newyorker.com. January 24, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• There and then, sitting beside her and within the strength of my adoration, I felt invincible.

  Hisham Matar

  Sitting, Invincible, Adoration

  6 Copy quote

• The three things that help writing the most are living, writing, and reading. In that order.

  Hisham Matar

  Reading, Writing, Order

  6 Copy quote

• I wanted to wear her as you would a piece of clothing, to fold into her ribs, be a stone in her mouth.

  Hisham Matar

  Ribs, Pieces, Mouths

  Hisham Matar (2011). “Anatomy of a Disappearance”, p.13, Penguin UK

  7 Copy quote

• It is sometimes hard to escape the belief that history exists against the artist.

  Hisham Matar

  Artist, Belief, Sometimes

  "Ask the Author Live: Hisham Matar on Libya". The New Yorker Live Chat, www.newyorker.com. October 25, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

• I am of the firm opinion that no one should tell writers what to do, or what to write, or how to write.

  Hisham Matar

  Writing, Opinion, Should

  Source: www.newyorker.com

  4 Copy quote

• Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih, is an eloquent and restrained portrait of one man's exile. It is a rare narrative in that it charts a life divided between England and Sudan. Without a doubt it is one of the finest Arabic novels of the 20th century, and Denys Johnson-Davies' translationdoes the original justice.

  Hisham Matar

  Men, Justice, Doubt

  4 Copy quote

• When I first began writing In the Country of Men all I had was the voice of the protagonist. He intrigued me and my desire to want to know him and his world became almost compulsive.

  Hisham Matar

  Country, Writing, Men

  4 Copy quote

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