Growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, I lived in the shadow of a tyrannical state. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
In Sufi terms, there are two very interesting notions of transcendence. One is to gaze out at the universe and to comprehend that what you see out there reflects what you are. The other one is to look inside yourself and recognise that the universe is present there. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
When people talk about the death of the novel, they are speaking of the need for the birth of something different. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
Sufi poetry is, in a sense, self-help poetry about how to live a decent life, how to deal with your mortality. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
I don’t want to be a propagandist or say that Pakistan is just great. There are problems, but it is a much more complex place than we are given to believe. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
We need a self because the complexity of the chemical processes that make up our individual humanities exceeds the processing power of our brains. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
Being outside the candy store looking in is the state of people today. Whether you’re in a Pakistani village watching somebody in a car drive by, or you’re in the city of Lahore going to a restaurant and seeing somebody with a security entourage coming in… you’re exposed to people with more. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
When the machine of a human being is turned on, it seems to produce a protagonist, just as a television produces an image. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
As a child I read all kinds of stuff, whether it was ‘Asterix and Obelix’ and ‘Tin Tin’ comic books, or ‘Lord of the Rings,’ or Frank Herbert’s sci-fi. Or ‘The Wind in the Willows.’ Or ‘Charlotte’s Web.’ Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
