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" The cost of Colonel Gaddafi's rule on Libyan society is incalculable. "

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

" 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. "

" I sometimes wonder if I would have become a writer if what happened to my father hadn't happened. "

" 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. "

" 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.' "

" I used to be a keen rider. Sometimes I could sense what a horse liked or preferred to do. "

" In Libya, I did well at school because I was clever. In Egyptian public school, I got the highest marks for the basest of reasons. And in the American school, I struggled. Everything - mathematics, the sciences, pottery, swimming - had to be conducted in a language I hardly knew and that was neither spoken in the streets nor at home. "

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

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

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

" My father, the political dissident Jaballa Matar, disappeared from his home in Cairo in March 1990. "

" My work is my shelter, particularly in these moments when things are happening fast. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" When I was 12 years old, living in Cairo, my parents enrolled me in the American school. Most of the Americans there appeared oddly stifled, determined to remain, if not physically then sentimentally, back in the United States. "

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

" From my family alone, Qaddafi had imprisoned five men. "

" 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. "

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

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

" I think my generation's inability to speak in absolute terms when it comes to politics is a very positive thing; it's made us more nuanced, made us more complex. "

" Architecture remains a passion and a subject I'm very interested in. I learned a great deal from studying it and working in it. "

" The Arab Spring, with all of its failings and failures, exposed the lie that if we are to live, then we must live as slaves. It was an attempt to undermine not only the orthodoxy of dictatorship but also an international political orthodoxy where every activity must be approved by the profit logic of the 'ledger.' "

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

" I've very aware of my rootlessness. "

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

" 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. "