Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" We need a father to rage against. "
Hisham Matar
Against
Father
Rage
Related Quotes:
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Feeling
Women
Escape
" 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
" Dreams have consequences. "
Hisham Matar
Dreams
Consequences
" The Qaddafis, father and sons, speak the grammar of dictatorship: threats and bribery. "
Hisham Matar
Speak
Father
Dictatorship
" There's always a problem when you write, something you're trying to resolve, and sometimes a view can be inspiring. "
Hisham Matar
Sometimes
Problem
You
" From my family alone, Qaddafi had imprisoned five men. "
Hisham Matar
Qaddafi
Alone
Family
" 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.' "
Hisham Matar
Live
Lie
Logic
" 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
Me
Place
Revolution
" 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
" Language is not just a code; you are writing into its history, into its tides. "
Hisham Matar
Just
History
You
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Imagination
Unity
Future
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Life
Powerful
Reflection
" Great writing fills me with hopeful enthusiasm and never envy. "
Hisham Matar
Writing
Envy
Great
" 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
" I am terribly interested in the paragraph: the paragraph as an object, the construction, and the possibilities of what a paragraph can do. "
Hisham Matar
Construction
Am
I Am
" Making something of loss is, on some level, satisfying. "
Hisham Matar
Making
Something
Loss
" My earliest memory of books is not of reading but of being read to. I spent hours listening, watching the face of the person reading aloud to me. "
Hisham Matar
Face
Listening
Me
" 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. "
Hisham Matar
Change
Thought
Said
" I used to be a keen rider. Sometimes I could sense what a horse liked or preferred to do. "
Hisham Matar
Rider
Sometimes
Used
" 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
" 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
" I get a lot of energy from making things up, which is why I feel I'm a novelist. "
Hisham Matar
I Feel
Feel
Why
" My work is my shelter, particularly in these moments when things are happening fast. "
Hisham Matar
Fast
Happening
Work
" Political dictatorships take possession not just of money and belongings but of narrative. "
Hisham Matar
Just
Take
Political
" Ivan Turgenev's novella 'First Love' is one of the most perfect things ever written. "
Hisham Matar
Perfect
Most
Love Is
" All great art allows us this: a glimpse across the limits of our self. "
Hisham Matar
Self
Art
Great
" The cost of Colonel Gaddafi's rule on Libyan society is incalculable. "
Hisham Matar
Gaddafi
Cost
Colonel
" I don't remember a time when words were not dangerous. "
Hisham Matar
Words
Remember
Time
" 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
" 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