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" I've never thought of myself in terms of an identity. I'm always baffled when I encounter someone who gives the impression about being confident about a particular defined identity. "

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" 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. "

Hisham Matar

Prison

Consequences

" I used to believe that it was not possible to lose someone I loved without sensing it somehow, without feeling something shift. But it's not true. People can die, sometimes the closest people to us, without us noticing a thing. "

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

" From before I was born, we Arabs have been caught between two forces that, seemingly, cannot be defeated: our ruthless dictators, who oppress and humiliate us, and the cynical western powers, who would rather see us ruled by criminals loyal to them than have democratically elected leaders accountable to us. "

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

" 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. "

" Grenfell, the building set on fire with the help of its own face, is a scene of a complex injustice: one that is moral, economic, political, and aesthetic. Not only was the cladding unsafe, it was ugly; not only was it ugly, it was untrue both to the architecture of the building it covered and untrue to its responsibility to human safety. "

" 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. "

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

" In 2006, I published my first novel, 'In the Country of Men.' The publication of the book gave me a bigger platform to speak about my father's abduction and Libya's human-rights record. "

" 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. "

" 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

Place

Singing

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

" Over the centuries, close-knit tribes have played an important part in the cohesion of Libyan society. "

" One of the dark truths about dictators - and it applies to Gaddafi - is that on some level, they love their people. But it is a strange love. It says, 'I love you for me; I don't love you for you.' That rhymes with a certain kind of Libyan father who was always certain about what was good for those around him. Those fathers lose in the end. "

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

Hisham Matar

Been

Never

" 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. "

" We got rid of Muammar Gaddafi. I never thought I would be able to write these words. "

" All great art allows us this: a glimpse across the limits of our self. "

" Nothing we read can import new or foreign feelings that we don't, in one form or another, already possess. "

" 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. "

Hisham Matar

Place

Revolution

" Civil war is a national crisis and also a private trauma: We suffer it collectively and in isolation. "

" I've very aware of my rootlessness. "

Hisham Matar

Aware

Very

" It is easy to underestimate the demands of an open heart. "

" Throughout my entire life, I have lived in the shadow of the dictatorship. It denied me safety and security. "

" Language is not just a code; you are writing into its history, into its tides. "

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

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

Hisham Matar

Crush

Give

" One of the reasons why Gadafy's dictatorship has managed to remain in power for so long is not just because it has shown itself to be able to exact a great deal of violence, both psychological and physical, on its people, but because it has been very successful at imposing a narrative, a story. "

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