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" My father believed in armed struggle. "
Hisham Matar
Believed
Armed
Father
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" Civil war is a national crisis and also a private trauma: We suffer it collectively and in isolation. "
Hisham Matar
Isolation
War
Suffer
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Value
Think
People
" The space where writing happens is a unique space that's hard to define, and when you're kicked out of it because you're travelling or distracted, it seems so elusive and hard to defend because you yourself doubt whether it existed. "
Hisham Matar
You
Space
Unique
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Madness
Romantic
Wife
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Cloud
Lost
Life
" I don't remember a time when words were not dangerous. "
Hisham Matar
Words
Remember
Time
" My best hope is that Libya turns into a peaceful, sensible country that has all the things my father and lots of others have been calling for: independence of the courts and press, a protected and democratic constitution, with different parties involved in a healthy and open debate. "
Hisham Matar
Hope
Best
Debate
" 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
Like
" When I'm writing, my mood is very good - and I love life. "
Hisham Matar
Good
Life
Writing
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Loyal
Cynical
Born
" I've very aware of my rootlessness. "
Hisham Matar
Aware
Very
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
People
Father
Good
" I am, by instinct, wary of revolutions. The gathering of the masses fills me with trepidation. "
Hisham Matar
Gathering
I Am
Instinct
" To be okay with not knowing is a sign of a mature person and a mature society. "
Hisham Matar
Society
Mature
Person
" There's something very bizarre about having a father who has disappeared. It's very hard to articulate. "
Hisham Matar
Father
Something
Hard
" I sometimes wonder if I would have become a writer if what happened to my father hadn't happened. "
Hisham Matar
Father
Wonder
Sometimes
" Growing up in the Libya of the 1970s, I remember the prevalence of local bands who were as much influenced by Arabic musical traditions as by the Rolling Stones or the Beatles. But the project of 'Arabisation' soon got to them, too, and western musical instruments were declared forbidden as 'instruments of imperialism.' "
Hisham Matar
Project
Growing Up
Growing
" Living in hope is a really terrible thing. "
Hisham Matar
Terrible
Thing
Hope
" 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! "
Hisham Matar
Hope
Books
Love
" In the end, madness is worse than injustice, and justice far sweeter than freedom. "
Hisham Matar
Far
Injustice
Freedom
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Only
Age
Powerful
" Architecture remains a passion and a subject I'm very interested in. I learned a great deal from studying it and working in it. "
Hisham Matar
Studying
Passion
Great
" It is evident that Qaddafi is mentally unwell. Like Richard III, he has barricaded himself within lies. "
Hisham Matar
Lies
Like
Within
" Throughout my entire life, I have lived in the shadow of the dictatorship. It denied me safety and security. "
Hisham Matar
Life
Security
Safety
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Men
Father
Country
" 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
He
" Like all novelists, I'm interested in the filters between reality and the imagination. "
Hisham Matar
Imagination
Interested
Like
" I think, ultimately, I am a sensualist and an aesthete. "
Hisham Matar
Ultimately
I Am
Am
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Violence
Way
Single
" Great writing fills me with hopeful enthusiasm and never envy. "
Hisham Matar
Writing
Envy
Great