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" I've never been particularly interested in genre distinctions. They seem to me more useful to a librarian than to a writer. "

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" Like all novelists, I'm interested in the filters between reality and the imagination. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" The Qaddafis, father and sons, speak the grammar of dictatorship: threats and bribery. "

" Political dictatorships take possession not just of money and belongings but of narrative. "

" Making something of loss is, on some level, satisfying. "

" I am, by instinct, wary of revolutions. The gathering of the masses fills me with trepidation. "

" 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. "

" When I'm writing, my mood is very good - and I love life. "

" I can pinpoint the exact moment when I first began to think about what profession I should go into. It was 1978. I was seven and had just been handed over by the women of my family to the earnest and self-important gatherings of the men. I was no longer the responsibility of my aunts and older female cousins. I was now a man. This was a tragedy. "

" As a young boy in Libya, it was hard to escape the conclusion that the women were the most feeling and most functional part of society. "

" 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! "

" Switching languages is a form of conversion. And like all conversions, whether it's judged a failure or a success, it excites the desire to leave, go elsewhere, adopt a new language and start all over again. It also means that a conscious effort is demanded to remain still. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I think, ultimately, I am a sensualist and an aesthete. "

" For an overwhelming majority of my life, my country has been a source of pain, fear, and embarrassment. "

" 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. "

" Like most dictators, Col Gaddafi detests the metropolis. His vision of Libya is a kind of Bedouin romantic medievalism, suspicious of universities, theatres, galleries and cafes, and so monitors the cities' inhabitants with paranoid suspicion. "

" Being my father's son is a kind of privilege. "

" In the end, madness is worse than injustice, and justice far sweeter than freedom. "

" Gaddafi tried to give a masterclass to men like the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, on how to crush a civilian uprising. "

" To be okay with not knowing is a sign of a mature person and a mature society. "

" I don't remember a time when words were not dangerous. "

" 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. "

" I get a lot of energy from making things up, which is why I feel I'm a novelist. "

" My parents left Libya in 1979, escaping political repression, and settled in Cairo. I was nine. "

" Great writing fills me with hopeful enthusiasm and never envy. "

" There's something very bizarre about having a father who has disappeared. It's very hard to articulate. "