Words matter. These are the best Hisham Matar Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
In the same way that Egypt and Libya conspired to ‘disappear’ my father and silence writers such as Idris Ali, they made me, too, to a far lesser extent, feel punished for speaking out.
There are two voices: the first says write; the second hardly speaks, but I know what he wants. And if I let him, nothing would get done. He hovers at the edges.
Turgenev’s achievement lies in how he succeeded, in spite of himself, his country, and his time, in exempting his work from public duty. This has given it that unnameable quality that makes every sentence true, every silence trustworthy.
For an overwhelming majority of my life, my country has been a source of pain, fear, and embarrassment.
Ivan Turgenev’s novella ‘First Love’ is one of the most perfect things ever written.
The cost of Colonel Gaddafi’s rule on Libyan society is incalculable.
I sometimes wonder if I would have become a writer if what happened to my father hadn’t happened.
All great art allows us this: a glimpse across the limits of our self.
Whenever I was encouraged by my elders to pick up a book, I was often told, ‘Read so as to know the world.’ And it is true; books have invited me into different countries, states of mind, social conditions and historical epochs; they have offered me a place at the most unusual gatherings.
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.
Throughout my entire life, I have lived in the shadow of the dictatorship. It denied me safety and security.
I hope and pray that I’ll be one of those fortunate people who have many, many books to write. I don’t begrudge writing. I love the whole thing!
Gaddafi tried to give a masterclass to men like the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, on how to crush a civilian uprising.
The Arab Spring is a powerful and compelling response not only to an age of tyranny but also to the remnant chains of imperial influence.
My father, the political dissident Jaballa Matar, disappeared from his home in Cairo in March 1990.
Being my father’s son is a kind of privilege.
There’s something very bizarre about having a father who has disappeared. It’s very hard to articulate.
I am terribly interested in the paragraph: the paragraph as an object, the construction, and the possibilities of what a paragraph can do.
I don’t remember a time when words were not dangerous.
My family settled in Cairo in 1980. I was nine. I missed Libya terribly, but I also took to Cairo. I perfected the accent. People assumed I was Egyptian.
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.
Language is not just a code; you are writing into its history, into its tides.
The Qaddafis, father and sons, speak the grammar of dictatorship: threats and bribery.
Some of the most powerful memories are those when you are very, very young. Adult life is seen through the reflection of complex, rational thought.
I don’t believe people are interested in dates and facts. I don’t think it is interesting to say what it is to be this person or that, but I do believe it is entertaining and perhaps even of value to express how it is to be that person.
Dreams have consequences.
One of the frustrations of prison life, which is also one of its intended consequences, is that the prisoner is made ineffective. He is unable to be of much use. The aim is to render him powerless.
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.
I’ve never been particularly interested in genre distinctions. They seem to me more useful to a librarian than to a writer.
My parents left Libya in 1979, escaping political repression, and settled in Cairo. I was nine.
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.
From my family alone, Qaddafi had imprisoned five men.
Living in hope is a really terrible thing.
To be okay with not knowing is a sign of a mature person and a mature society.
I’ve always said – I’ve always said I’m not, by temperament, a romantic about revolutions or given to revolutions. I’ve always thought that they are not the ideal way to change.
There’s always a problem when you write, something you’re trying to resolve, and sometimes a view can be inspiring.
Great writing fills me with hopeful enthusiasm and never envy.
Books have shown me horror and beauty.
Nothing makes you feel more stupid than learning a new language. You lose your confidence. You want to disappear. Not be noticed. Say as little as possible.
I’ve very aware of my rootlessness.
