57 Mohsin Hamid Quotes for You to Enjoy

Mohsin Hamid

Pakistani Writer

Born: Jul 23, 1971

Me People Think Time Writing You

Related authors: Ayn Rand Dr. Seuss H. L. Mencken Napoleon Hill Niccolo Machiavelli Thomas Mann Thomas Paine Voltaire

Islam is not a race, yet Islamophobia partakes of racist characteristics. Mohsin Hamid

Islam Characteristics Race

I think if you say that art and politics, or religion and politics, mustn't mix, don't mix, that is itself a political statement. Even if you are writing a 19th-century novel where the money comes from a plantation in the Caribbean and you don't talk about that, that itself is a political thing. Mohsin Hamid

There is a huge sense of loneliness as people leave villages and move to cities. It's hard to find that human connection as you move away from where you started. Mohsin Hamid

Loneliness You People Sense Cities Find Leave Huge Move Human Where Hard Connection Villages Away Started

Being a writer is not the point. Writing is. Mohsin Hamid

Writing Point Writer Being

Americans need to educate themselves, from elementary school onward, about what their country has done abroad. And they need to play a more active role in ensuring that what the United States does abroad is not merely in keeping with a foreign policy elite's sense of realpolitik but also with the American public's own sense of American values. Mohsin Hamid

School Values Country Own Sense Active States Ensuring About Abroad More Onward Merely Also Policy Does Foreign Educate Foreign Policy Role American Done Public Themselves American Values Elementary Elementary School United United States Play Keeping Elite Need

Growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, I lived in the shadow of a tyrannical state. Mohsin Hamid

State Tyrannical Shadow Up Growing Lived Pakistan Growing Up

When people talk about the death of the novel, they are speaking of the need for the birth of something different. Mohsin Hamid

Death People Birth About Something Talk Different Speaking Novel Need

In writing literary fiction, you are trying to help yourself. And readers are going to literary fiction not just to be entertained, but because they feel something else will happen; that the experience will take them beyond themselves and show them something they haven't seen before. Mohsin Hamid

You Experience Yourself Writing Will Seen Before Else Entertained Something Something Else Take Feel Beyond Readers Because Trying Going Just Fiction Happen Literary Literary Fiction Them Themselves Show Help

I think there's really strong social stratification in South Asia. Mohsin Hamid

Strong Think South South Asia Social Asia Really

My grandparents used to pray five times a day, but they were quiet about their own thing. Completely liberal day by day; my grandmother was a social worker and my grandfather was an engineer, but they never talked about religion. My entire life I couldn't remember one conversation I had with them about religion. Mohsin Hamid

Life Day Religion Conversation Remember Engineer Own Liberal Entire About Entire Life Never Had Talked Pray Were Five Times Quiet Social Them Grandfather Worker Grandmother Grandparents Used Thing

I'm not a representative of Pakistan; I'm just an example that Pakistanis are different from each other. I believe it in my fiction and I believe it personally. Mohsin Hamid

Example Believe Other Representative Just Different Fiction Personally Each Pakistan

Novels are make-believe and play for adults. Mohsin Hamid

Adult Make-Believe Novels Play

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

Wind Books Frank Rings Kinds Web Charlotte Stuff Read Sci-Fi Comic Lord Comic Books Lord Of The Rings Child Tin Whether Herbert

Like many of my friends in the Pakistani diaspora - and many of my friends in Pakistan itself, for that matter - I have sometimes looked at the country of my birth and wondered whether its future will be one of steady and sad decline. Mohsin Hamid

Sad Future Sometimes Matter Will Country Birth Steady Like Looked Friends Itself Wondered Whether Decline Many Pakistan Pakistani

I like the idea of an open, international London that thrives on attracting hard-working, talented people but has the confidence to tell them they must play by the same rules as everyone else. Mohsin Hamid

When terrorism strikes, divisive anger is a natural response. Mohsin Hamid

Terrorism Anger Natural Strikes Response Divisive

I am sometimes asked to name my favourite books. The list changes, depending on my mood, the year, tricks played by memory. I might mention novels by Nabokov and Calvino and Tolkien on one occasion, by Fitzgerald and Baldwin and E.B. White on another. Camus often features, as do Tolstoy, Borges, Morrison and Manto. Mohsin Hamid

Memory Sometimes Year White Changes Books Mood Tricks Favourite Mention Features Name Occasion Another Am Fitzgerald List Often Depending Might Asked Tolkien Tolstoy Novels Played

Most Muslims do not 'choose' Islam in the way that they choose to become doctors or lawyers, nor even in the way that they choose to become fans of Coldplay or Radiohead. Most Muslims, like people of any faith, are born into their religion. Mohsin Hamid

Faith Religion People Fans Doctors Islam Become Coldplay Way Muslims Born Lawyers Like Most Nor Any Choose Radiohead Even

Lived religion is a very different thing from strict textual analysis. Very few people of any faith live their lives as literalist interpretations of scripture. Mohsin Hamid

Faith Religion People Strict Few Live Analysis Textual Very Few People Any Different Scripture Different Thing Lived Lives Thing Interpretations

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

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