Language is so inherent to humanity, so necessary for even basic thinking, that stories and poetry are available to anyone who can… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
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 Books Copy Share Image
I have a hard time imagining a country or a government where I would say, "Oh, this is good," where I could… — Aleksandar Hemon Country Copy Share Image
We, as writers, have to figure out a way to create a consciousness in language. It's crazy even to attempt to do… — Aleksandar Hemon Consciousness Copy Share Image
The beauty of literature - also its limit - is that it is inescapably personal, even if you're writing science fiction. — Aleksandar Hemon Beauty Copy Share Image
It's so internalized, the way your mind works in relation to anything - it's a process, but then it isn't. It's working… — Aleksandar Hemon Mind Copy Share Image
I know a lot of people in the city, at all levels, horizontally and vertically - and that to me is a… — Aleksandar Hemon Billionaire Copy Share Image
I wish I could avoid the people who have threatened me. My favorite threat is that I will be thrown in the… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
“The writer does not dare dream of giving the best of his individuality. No, he must never express his anger. The vacillating… — Aleksandar Hemon Anger Copy Share Image
I read everything I could find in English - Twain, Henry James, Hemingway, really everything. And then after a while I started… — Aleksandar Hemon Books Copy Share Image
“The cafeteria in the Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital basement was the saddest place in the world—and forever it shall be—with its grim… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
“Ipak, nerijetko ga je morila sumnja koja opsjeda srce mnogoga umjetnika: da je njegova umjetnost, iskopana iz najtamnijih dubina njegove duše, čisto… — Aleksandar Hemon Balkan Copy Share Image
My books have been published all over Europe. They read me there, and I want to read them back. I also spend… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
“Before the war, the domain of culture seemed to offer a haven from the increasingly hateful world of politics. Now, when I… — Aleksandar Hemon Culture Copy Share Image
“While customarily splling coffee grounds all over the counter, I spotted a can in the corner whose red label read SADNESS. Was… — Aleksandar Hemon Sadness Copy Share Image
There are moments in life when it is all turned inside out--what is real becomes unreal, what is unreal becomes tangible, and… — Aleksandar Hemon Effort Copy Share Image
You have to suspend thinking in narratives. The moment you are conscious of yourself the gap opens up. And in this gap,… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
I spotted a can in the corner whose red label read SADNESS. Was there so much of it they could can it… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
The hopeless hope is one of the early harbingers of spring, bespeaking an innocent belief that the world might right its wrongs… — Aleksandar Hemon Belief Copy Share Image
I am itching to criticize some well-regarded writers' works, but I am not doing it because I am perfectly aware that my… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
I suppose I'm interested in sorrow, which is very different from depression or despair. Sorrow is continuous with the world; it allows… — Aleksandar Hemon Creativity Copy Share Image
What fiction and art can do, particularly narrative art, is construct consciousness - in a sense, we have to do it for… — Aleksandar Hemon Art Copy Share Image
I hate traveling and being away from my family. But I like meeting my readers, as what I write is actualized in… — Aleksandar Hemon Books Copy Share Image
Anything that might come under arts should not be subject to the whims of the idiotic market because the market's stupid, and… — Aleksandar Hemon Art Copy Share Image
I'm not nervous if I think about something for nine years and then I don't write it. Even if it fades it… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
Projecting yourself until everything is talking about you is, of course, a self-flattering form of self-pity — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
The mind is complicated and you can't trace the roots of its processes, but there is something about mathematical and algorithmic patterns… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
God knows our despair. God wants His chosen people to live in peace. God loves life, cares less about death. We need… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
Chicago is not a bad place to live. But the usual story of immigration is the happy fulfillment of human potential in… — Aleksandar Hemon America Copy Share Image
We apply the language that is comforting and comfortable and familiar in order to grasp that which confuses and scares us. That… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
When I came to America, I was already a writer, already published in Bosnia. I was planning to go back, but I… — Aleksandar Hemon America Copy Share Image
“You have to be taught to recognize and care about differences, you have to be instructed who you really are; you have… — Aleksandar Hemon Abstraction Copy Share Image
I think about the story while I think about other things. This is an important part of the process: I look at… — Aleksandar Hemon Brilliant Copy Share Image
There's a social and human necessity for some kind of continuity, but it's not axiomatic and not something you're born into; it's… — Aleksandar Hemon About yourself Copy Share Image
There are studies that have shown that we make decisions, ethical and otherwise, based on the way we imagine ourselves as characters… — Aleksandar Hemon Brave Copy Share Image
When I was in high school, I was in a special math class. I was infatuated with physics, particularly nuclear physics, Einstein,… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
