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Hisham Matar Quotes

Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.

Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.

Hisham Matar
Grief, Echoes, Want
Hisham Matar (2007). “In the Country of Men”, p.167, Penguin UK

Dreams have consequences. There is no turning back. A revolution is not a painless march to the gates of freedom and justice. It is a struggle between rage and hope, between the temptation to destroy and the desire to build. Its temperament is desperate. It is a tormented response to the past, to all that has happened, the recalled and unrecalled injustices - for the memory of a revolution reaches much further back than the memory of its protagonists.

Hisham Matar
Dream, Memories, Struggle
"The Consequences of Dreams" by Hisham Matar, www.newyorker.com. July 31, 2014.

Books written out of fire give me a great deal of pleasure. You get the sense that the world for these writers could not have continued if the book hadn't been written. When you come across a book like that it is a privilege.

Hisham Matar
Book, Fire, Giving

Nothing is more acceptable than what we are born into.

Hisham Matar
Born, Acceptable
"Naima" by Hisham Matar, www.newyorker.com. January 24, 2011.

There and then, sitting beside her and within the strength of my adoration, I felt invincible.

Hisham Matar
Sitting, Invincible, Adoration

The three things that help writing the most are living, writing, and reading. In that order.

Hisham Matar
Reading, Writing, Order

I wanted to wear her as you would a piece of clothing, to fold into her ribs, be a stone in her mouth.

Hisham Matar
Ribs, Pieces, Mouths
Hisham Matar (2011). “Anatomy of a Disappearance”, p.13, Penguin UK

It is sometimes hard to escape the belief that history exists against the artist.

Hisham Matar
Artist, Belief, Sometimes
"Ask the Author Live: Hisham Matar on Libya". The New Yorker Live Chat, www.newyorker.com. October 25, 2011.

I am of the firm opinion that no one should tell writers what to do, or what to write, or how to write.

Hisham Matar
Writing, Opinion, Should
Source: www.newyorker.com

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 in that it charts a life divided between England and Sudan. Without a doubt it is one of the finest Arabic novels of the 20th century, and Denys Johnson-Davies' translationdoes the original justice.

Hisham Matar
Men, Justice, Doubt

When I first began writing In the Country of Men all I had was the voice of the protagonist. He intrigued me and my desire to want to know him and his world became almost compulsive.

Hisham Matar
Country, Writing, Men

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