I sometimes wonder if I would have become a writer if what happened to my father hadn't happened. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
There's always a problem when you write, something you're trying to resolve, and sometimes a view can be inspiring. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
The three things that help writing the most are living, writing, and reading. In that order. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
I've never been particularly interested in genre distinctions. They seem to me more useful to a librarian than to a writer. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
My earliest memory of books is not of reading but of being read to. I spent hours listening, watching the face of… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
Books written out of fire give me a great deal of pleasure. You get the sense that the world for these writers… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
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… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
Whenever I was encouraged by my elders to pick up a book, I was often told, 'Read so as to know the… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
There and then, sitting beside her and within the strength of my adoration, I felt invincible. — Hisham Matar Copy Share
To be okay with not knowing is a sign of a mature person and a mature society. — Hisham Matar Copy Share
“History remembers Mussolini as the buffoonish Fascist, the ineffective silly man of Italy who led a lame military campaign in the Second World War,… — Hisham Matar Copy Share
Language is not just a code; you are writing into its history, into its tides. — Hisham Matar Copy Share
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… — Hisham Matar Copy Share
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 Copy Share
My parents left Libya in 1979, escaping political repression, and settled in Cairo. I was nine. — Hisham Matar Copy Share
Libyans are deeply unsettled by Gaddafi and his regime's careless contempt for human life. The dictatorship is willing to employ any methods necessary to… — Hisham Matar Copy Share
My best hope is that Libya turns into a peaceful, sensible country that has all the things my father and lots of others have… — Hisham Matar Copy Share
Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih, is an eloquent and restrained portrait of one man's exile. It is a rare narrative… — Hisham Matar Copy Share
Turgenev's achievement lies in how he succeeded, in spite of himself, his country, and his time, in exempting his work from public duty. This… — Hisham Matar Copy Share
Over the centuries, close-knit tribes have played an important part in the cohesion of Libyan society. — Hisham Matar Copy Share
My work is my shelter, particularly in these moments when things are happening fast. — Hisham Matar Copy Share
