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Thinking Quotes by Mohsin Hamid

39 Thinking quotes by Mohsin Hamid

All Thinking quotes Mohsin Hamid’s page

Mohsin Hamid says fiction is a political act that lets readers live inside new worlds and discover deeper understanding. He believes writing should not hand out answers but instead invite people to see themselves in a story. He also points out that big issues like war and climate change will shape future migrations.

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I think walking is very useful, like sleeping and dreaming, as something that's important to my ability to write.

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I am a strong believer in the intertwined nature of the personal and the political; I think they move together.

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A reader should encounter themselves in a novel, I think.

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You're never rude,' she said, smiling, 'and I think it's good to be touchy sometimes. It means you care.

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I think there's really strong social stratification in South Asia.

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think that the external situation has also changed somewhat. The reduction of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has, in a sense,…

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We think of the romance novel as a lesser form of literature, but I don't think that's true. Love is a very…

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I think writing is a very political act. I think that any writer who says it's not, is simply a writer who…

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I don't think the function of writing, at least for me as a fiction writer, is to say to people, "Here's the…

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I think that people are going to move. They always have and that's going to continue. The question is, how are we…

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I actually feel that personal matters, like religion and spirituality, are things that I really discuss only with intimates. I think it's,…

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I think sometimes feeling that you've been marginalized opens you up to the realization that, in their own lives, almost everyone experiences…

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I think there's a natural link between the fact that our self is a story that we make up and that we're…

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I think we should be prepared, given environmental and political change for large-scale migration. If sea levels rise and 200 million people…

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I think that things were getting really very bad a couple of years ago, and there's been a very significant change in…

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There really still is a deep wound, you know, in the collective psyche of Pakistan. And the violence has left enormous human…

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We're being subject to incredible amounts of surveillance, the police are taking on draconian powers and violating our rights. I think this…

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I'm often surprised that, you know, you encounter all types of humanity. And very often, there are some very decent people who…

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In some contexts in Pakistan maybe a beard is negative. It depends. And in some contexts in America maybe a beard is…

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Time is our most precious currency. So it's significant that we are being encouraged, wherever possible, to think of our attention not…

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I think that right now, the global political crisis that we see all over the place has to do with virulent nostalgia.…

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You know, very often, if you look at the kinds of communications that they're getting in an ISIS recruiting video, the videos…

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And I ask myself what it is about me that makes this wonderful, beautiful woman return. Is it because I'm pathetic, helpless…

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I think massive migration is inevitable. As sea levels rise, as climate change happens, as fertile fields become arid, as wars are…

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Artists are in the imagining/ prototyping business. Society needs people to be out there thinking of what might be. That cannot be…

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The paralysis that we have right now when we think about migration is partly because we can't imagine what the world would…

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I think the idea of migration through time is very important because every human being does that and it unites us with…

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My aunt used to say, "It's between me and my god; it's got nothing to do with you." It was a good…

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Religion is not something I like to talk about publicly. One reason is the politics, but also I think spirituality is deeply…

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I think I've always been drawn to the second person. When I was growing up and playing with my friends, the usual…

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I think wars, climate change, all that stuff is going to move people. And so I wanted to say, "What if the…

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I think that we live in a world - and this is something which living in Pakistan, perhaps, has taught me -…

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I think the beard helps offset - it's the only hairstyle I can really pull off. But I'm often clean-shaven. I think,…

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What did I think of Princeton? Well, the answer to that question requires a story. When I first arrived, I looked around…

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And also I think the rise of other, you could say, destinations for international jihadis mean that Pakistan isn't necessarily the place…

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Over time, our inescapable, systemic, fundamentally human impurity gives us the capacity to do what has not been done before: to make…

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Contemporary culture in Pakistan, just like in America, is continuously hitting us with scary stuff. And so we are utterly anxious. I…

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I think fiction allows you to inhabit new domains and it's you, the reader living in that domain for a few days…

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In Pakistan, many of the young people read novels because in the novels, not just my novels but the novels of many…

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More by Mohsin Hamid

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…

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…

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…

“I met her eyes, and for the first time I perceived that there was something broken behind them, like a tiny crack in a…

“muscularity, made more pronounced by her gauntness, and the near-inanimate”

“In this group, everyone was foreign, and so, in a sense, no one was.”

“It seemed to me then - and to be honest, sir, seems to me still - that America was engaged only in posturing. As…

When the uncertain future becomes the past, the past in turn becomes uncertain.

When the machine of a human being is turned on, it seems to produce a protagonist, just as a television produces an 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…

“Often, during my stay in your country, such comparisons troubled me. In fact, they did more than trouble me: they made me resentful. Four…

Americans need to educate themselves, from elementary school onward, about what their country has done abroad. And they need to play a more active…

I'm not a representative of Pakistan; I'm just an example that Pakistanis are different from each other. I believe it in my fiction and…

“end of a couple is like a death, and the notion of death, of temporariness, can remind us of the value of things,”

NYC doesn't have a big sign saying "You must love diversity and the rights of all people." And that's not what makes you love…