Living Writing Quotes by Hisham Matar

There and then, sitting beside her and within the strength of my adoration, I felt invincible.

— Hisham Matar

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

— Hisham Matar

“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

Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.

— Hisham Matar

Dreams have consequences.

— Hisham Matar

Language is not just a code; you are writing into its history, into its tides.

— Hisham Matar

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

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

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

— Hisham Matar

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

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

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

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

Over the centuries, close-knit tribes have played an important part in the cohesion of Libyan society.

— Hisham Matar

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

— Hisham Matar