Why the brevity? Because I'd rather people read my book twice than only half-way through — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
Only in novels can we take another human being into our head and create something jointly. — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
Novels function and the power of novels function because of their stories. — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
When people talk about the death of the novel, they are speaking of the need for the birth of something different. — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
“Indeed, all books, each and every book ever written, could be said to be offered to the reader as a form of… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
For me, writing a novel is more like digging a well than climbing a mountain - some heroic thing where I set… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
We think of the romance novel as a lesser form of literature, but I don't think that's true. Love is a very… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
The notion of love as a potentially destructive and potentially redemptive human force is something that comes across in all my books. — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
But when you read a book, what you see are black squiggles on pulped wood or, increasingly, dark pixels on a pale… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
It's in being read that a book becomes a book, and in each of a million different readings a book become one… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
I often use nameless places in my work as a way of allowing the readers to create more of the novel and… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
I think fiction allows you to inhabit new domains and it's you, the reader living in that domain for a few days… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
I try to write short novels and leave details out not because I want to be minimalist, but because I think that… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
We are all refugees from our childhoods. And so we turn, among other things, to stories. To write a story, to read… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
“[…]when you read a book, what you see are black squiggles on pulped wood or, increasingly, dark pixels on a pale screen.… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
In writing literary fiction, you are trying to help yourself. And readers are going to literary fiction not just to be entertained,… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
In a world of intrusive technology, we must engage in a kind of struggle if we wish to sustain moments of solitude.… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
Oftentimes I deliberately put ambiguity into my books so that... the reader is left with an echo of: 'How much of this… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
I don't want to be anxious on my day-to-day life. I want to try to imagine a future I'd like to live… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
I take six or seven years to write really small books. There is a kind of aesthetic of leanness, of brevity. — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
In Italian, the word for novel is romanzo, "the romance." The English is "novel" - something new. Both of those elements, experimentation… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
If your book is set in the plantation days of the slave-owning South and you write a little romance between two slave… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
For me, writing a novel is like solving a puzzle. But I don't intend my novels as puzzles. I intend them as… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
Writing a novel is like an amusement park or a museum or a city. You go into that place and you have… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
Novel writing is the slowest art form in the world. It is not a sprint. It is not even a marathon. It… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
Nothing good gets written without the writer suffering along the way, in my opinion. Writing should be a pleasure, but unless you… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
The anger is useful too because when things about the world upset you, that is really a fertile feeling to channel into… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
As a child I read all kinds of stuff, whether it was 'Asterix and Obelix' and 'Tin Tin' comic books, or 'Lord… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
“It is odd, isn’t it? Whenever I read something interesting, I tear out a piece and keep it as a talisman until… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
My dad had this outlook: It doesn't matter what I want to read - reading was a good thing. So whatever I… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
When I'm really plugged in I find it difficult to write. It's like digging a well. If you make a void, something… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
I feel engaged with young people in Pakistan. But that said, it's still a small minority that reads novels, literary fiction. But… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
I am sometimes asked to name my favourite books. The list changes, depending on my mood, the year, tricks played by memory.… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
Pakistan now is like a horror film franchise. You know, it's 'Friday the 13th, Episode 63: The Terrorist from Pakistan.' And each time we… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
A beard is something that is almost like a mirror to the viewer. When someone sees you wearing a beard, they're seeing something in… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
And also I think the rise of other, you could say, destinations for international jihadis mean that Pakistan isn't necessarily the place where people… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
“I met her eyes, and for the first time I perceived that there was something broken behind them, like a tiny crack in a… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
“muscularity, made more pronounced by her gauntness, and the near-inanimate” — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
“In this group, everyone was foreign, and so, in a sense, no one was.” — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
“It seemed to me then - and to be honest, sir, seems to me still - that America was engaged only in posturing. As… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
When the uncertain future becomes the past, the past in turn becomes uncertain. — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
When the machine of a human being is turned on, it seems to produce a protagonist, just as a television produces an image. — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
I think fiction allows you to inhabit new domains and it's you, the reader living in that domain for a few days that results… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
“Often, during my stay in your country, such comparisons troubled me. In fact, they did more than trouble me: they made me resentful. Four… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
Americans need to educate themselves, from elementary school onward, about what their country has done abroad. And they need to play a more active… — Mohsin Hamid Copy Share Image
![“[…]when you read a book, what you see are black squiggles on pulped wood or, increasingly, dark pixels on a pale screen. To transform these icons into characters and events, you must imagine. And when you imagine, you create. It's in reading that a book becomes a book, and in each of a million…” quote by Mohsin Hamid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a3d/mohsin-hamid-798_book_when-you-read-a-book-what-you-see-are-bl_397757.jpg)
