Switching languages is a form of conversion. And like all conversions, whether it’s judged a failure or a success, it excites the desire to leave, go elsewhere, adopt a new language and start all over again. It also means that a conscious effort is demanded to remain still. Hisham Matar Read Quote
Grenfell, the building set on fire with the help of its own face, is a scene of a complex injustice: one that is moral, economic, political, and aesthetic. Not only was the cladding unsafe, it was ugly; not only was it ugly, it was untrue both to the architecture of the building it covered and untrue to its responsibility to human safety. Hisham Matar Read Quote
One of the frustrations of prison life, which is also one of its intended consequences, is that the prisoner is made ineffective. He is unable to be of much use. The aim is to render him powerless. Hisham Matar Read Quote
When I was 12 years old, living in Cairo, my parents enrolled me in the American school. Most of the Americans there appeared oddly stifled, determined to remain, if not physically then sentimentally, back in the United States. Hisham Matar Read Quote
Whenever I was encouraged by my elders to pick up a book, I was often told, ‘Read so as to know the world.’ And it is true; books have invited me into different countries, states of mind, social conditions and historical epochs; they have offered me a place at the most unusual gatherings. Hisham Matar Read Quote
I get a lot of energy from making things up, which is why I feel I’m a novelist. Hisham Matar Read Quote
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 travelling or distracted, it seems so elusive and hard to defend because you yourself doubt whether it existed. Hisham Matar Read Quote
I lost my father when I was 19, so the majority of my life has been under this cloud, and I have been full of the intention to find out what happened. Hisham Matar Read Quote
