Writer Quotes by Aleksandar Hemon

The balls do not make a writer.

— Aleksandar Hemon

In Bosnian, there's no distinction in literature between fiction and nonfiction; there's no word describing that.

— Aleksandar Hemon

It was always clear to me that I would have to earn my readers, some I would have to find, some to…

— Aleksandar Hemon

I long for, not a writer's retreat - I can write in any situation - but a reader's retreat.

— Aleksandar Hemon

There's no bad writing; you did something. I was operating inside language, and I did something. I'm not ashamed of it.

— Aleksandar Hemon

Sometimes I don't write at all. Someone once asked me, "What do you do when you're not writing?" And I said, "I…

— Aleksandar Hemon

I don't believe in inspiration. I write when I can't avoid writing anymore.

— Aleksandar Hemon

To me there's no difference between a book of stories and a novel - they're just slightly different shapes.

— Aleksandar Hemon

I end up writing something every day, since I develop six or seven things at the same time - soccer columns, this…

— Aleksandar Hemon

The trouble with calling a book a novel, well, it's not like I'm writing the same book all the time, but there…

— Aleksandar Hemon

The funny thing is that in Bosnia there are no words that are equivalent to fiction and nonfiction. From the storytelling point…

— Aleksandar Hemon

There is a logic [to my reading], but I can't define it. I like reading impulsively. I collect books, I have a…

— Aleksandar Hemon

I write and read with the assumption that literature contains knowledge of human experience that is not available otherwise.

— Aleksandar Hemon

Literature is always something - it is either story or poetry, ideally both. That is, you always know what it is and…

— Aleksandar Hemon

Writing is a mode of agency in the world that is different from mere employment. There has to be some sort of…

— Aleksandar Hemon

You are always working on your worst book and your best book at the same time. The praise does not make you…

— Aleksandar Hemon

I am a writer, which means I write stories, I write novels, and I would write poetry if I knew how to.…

— Aleksandar Hemon

In the olden days, a memoir was something written by Churchill and people like that, because they had a grand experience and…

— Aleksandar Hemon

Memoir implies the need to reveal something about yourself - to recount your life for educational purposes.

— Aleksandar Hemon

For a fight to be productive, or at least relevant, writers should fight over different demands they put upon writing (as an…

— Aleksandar Hemon

I want to make money, and I would like to have a lot of money, but I still believe that the only…

— Aleksandar Hemon

There are many things I think about that never get to the point of becoming serious. In other words, I try to…

— Aleksandar Hemon

I'm bright, but there are lots of bright writers and people everywhere. In no way, at no point do I think I'm…

— Aleksandar Hemon

I resist when someone calls me a novelist: it implies some kind of inherent superiority of the novel. I'm not a novelist,…

— Aleksandar Hemon