I am of the firm opinion that no one should tell writers what to do, or what to write, or how to… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
I sometimes wonder if I would have become a writer if what happened to my father hadn't happened. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
The three things that help writing the most are living, writing, and reading. In that order. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
Language is not just a code; you are writing into its history, into its tides. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
When I first began writing In the Country of Men all I had was the voice of the protagonist. He intrigued me… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
To me, writing is like singing in the most inappropriate place, singing as beautifully as you can on a bus or in… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
I've never been particularly interested in genre distinctions. They seem to me more useful to a librarian than to a writer. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
I hope and pray that I'll be one of those fortunate people who have many, many books to write. I don't begrudge… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
The romantic idea of the penniless writer is false. It's terrible. I hated being in debt. I hated the anxiety of not… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
The space where writing happens is a unique space that's hard to define, and when you're kicked out of it because you're… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
Books written out of fire give me a great deal of pleasure. You get the sense that the world for these writers… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
There's always a problem when you write, something you're trying to resolve, and sometimes a view can be inspiring. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
I admire Turgenev, Camus, Proust and Shakespeare, but I've also learnt a lot about writing from composers and artists. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
There is a tendency to over-exaggerate and over-romanticise the place of a writer in a revolution. That bothers me. I think it's… — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
There and then, sitting beside her and within the strength of my adoration, I felt invincible. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
To be okay with not knowing is a sign of a mature person and a mature society. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
Language is not just a code; you are writing into its history, into its tides. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
My parents left Libya in 1979, escaping political repression, and settled in Cairo. I was nine. — Hisham Matar Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
