In art class at school we learned how to draw tanks and soldiers opening fire at [Iranian leader Ayatollah] Khomeini and his beard. They didn't teach us the names of the flowers that grew around us in the city -… — Hassan Blasim Copy Share
I'm not much interested in prizes, whether from the Arab world or from the Western world. Writing is a very difficult process and I… — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
We used to watch executions. I mentioned that in one of my stories. There was a piece of open ground near the area where… — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
It's ridiculous and painful to use the Arabic of an Iraqi poet who lived centuries ago to describe what we in Iraq are suffering… — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
The trail of "secret migration" was a shock to me. I knew a little about the difficulties, just bits of news in the media. — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
How can one talk in a classical language about a child who's torn apart in an explosion in the market near his school? People… — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
“...I believe in dreams more than I believe in God. Dreams get into you and leave, then come back with new fruit, but God… — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
I'm talking about the essence of humanity. Hope is mixed into the blood of every human being, everywhere and in every time. — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
“On more than one occasion I heard how life apparently advances, moves on, sets sail or, at worst, apparently crawls slowly forward. My life,… — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
“The pleasure I found in reading books was disconcerting...I felt anxious about every new piece of information. I would latch onto one particular detail and start look for references and other versions of it in other writings. I remembered, for example, that for quite some time I tracked down the subject of kissing. I read and read and felt dizzy… — Hassan Blasim Copy Share
The Iran-Iraq war began the same year that I went to primary school, at the age of six. — Hassan Blasim Copy Share
Some Iraqi writers are more daring today and have excellent imaginations and their material is rich in human experience. But the Arab prizes, once… — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
"Secret migration" across borders is a form of human degradation and evidence of the depravity of the human conscience. — Hassan Blasim Copy Share Image
