Certainly, historically, there has been more attention given in the international media to Indian English-language writers than to Pakistani English-language writers. But that, in my opinion, was justified by the sheer number of excellent writers coming from India and the Indian diaspora. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
I think there’s a natural link between the fact that our self is a story that we make up and that we’re drawn to stories. It resonates, in a way. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
Given enough time, polar bears might migrate off the Arctic ice, evolve darker coats, find a different diet, and thrive in a new, warmer climate. But if the ice on which they depend disappears in a few decades, they are likely to die. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
It’s not that, living in Pakistan, I feel an enormous constraint on how I can write and what I can say; rather, I recognize that one has to navigate these things… Am I aware of things that one could say that would be risky or that could be dangerous? Certainly I’m aware of those things. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
I come from an enormous and very close family. I have over a dozen aunts and uncles in Pakistan, dozens of cousins. I have many close friends. I have received so much love in Lahore that the city always pulls me. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
In a sense, by closing off the idea that young Muslims, and particularly young Muslim men, can be American heroes, it increases the chance that they’ll try to be some other kind of hero. And that, I think, is entirely counterproductive. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
Maybe we are all prospective migrants. The lines of national borders on maps are artificial constructs, as unnatural to us as they are to birds flying overhead. Our first impulse is to ignore them. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
It’s very contrary to the notion of what America is to imagine that we can stop migration. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
Chance plays a powerful role in every life – our brains and personalities are just chemical soup, after all; a few drops here or there matter enormously – but consequences often become more serious as income levels go down. Mohsin Hamid Read Quote
