19 Aleksandar Hemon Quotes for You to Enjoy

Aleksandar Hemon

Bosniak Writer

Born: Sep 9, 1964

Book Life Me Myself Writing You

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

I have two homes, like someone who leaves their hometown and/or parents and then establishes a life elsewhere. They might say that they're going home when they return to see old friends or parents, but then they go home as well when they go to where they live now. Sarajevo is home, Chicago is home. Aleksandar Hemon

Life Home Old Parents Old Friends Live Elsewhere Say See Someone Like Well Return Leaves Go Go Home Chicago Friends Going Going Home Where Might Then Who Now Homes Hometown Two

I like to blur the line between fact and fiction, but not to condescend to the reader by enmeshing her/him into some sort of a postmodern coop. Aleksandar Hemon

Some Postmodern Fact Between Like Reader Sort Line Fiction Blur

I tend to wait for true stories to mature into fiction. Most of my fiction grew out of a long-germinating real-life situation. Aleksandar Hemon

Wait Situation Out Tend True Most Mature Fiction Grew Stories

I'll take any life in which I can make choices and have agency, and America is not a bad place for all that. Aleksandar Hemon

Life Bad Take Make America Any Place Which Agency Choices

I did not intend to stay; I had no experience in the United States - I may have been here less than 24 hours - but I knew I would never get inside there. And 'there' not being America necessarily, but that harmonious mode of living that some people are lucky enough to have in this country. Aleksandar Hemon

Experience People Some People Country Living Enough Harmonious States Would Stay Inside No Experience Some Never Had Knew Hours Been Mode Than America Get Intend Did May Being Less Lucky United United States Necessarily Here

In Bosnian, there's no distinction in literature between fiction and nonfiction; there's no word describing that. Aleksandar Hemon

Word Distinction Bosnian Between Nonfiction Fiction Literature Describing

I long for, not a writer's retreat - I can write in any situation - but a reader's retreat. Aleksandar Hemon

Long Situation Write Writer Retreat Reader Any

When we're upset, our vocal cords tighten and we can't speak. And when I lie - well, I can't lie, because the same thing happens - everyone who knows me knows that when I start squeaking, I've started lying. Aleksandar Hemon

I wish I could avoid the people who have threatened me. My favorite threat is that I will be thrown in the River Miljacka, which is at most knee-deep, with my feet bound in cement. Aleksandar Hemon

Me People Will Wish Favorite Threat Threatened Could Thrown River Bound Feet Most Cement Which Avoid Who

I read everything I could find in English - Twain, Henry James, Hemingway, really everything. And then after a while I started writing shorter pieces in English, and one of them got published in a literary magazine and that's how it got started. After that, graduate school didn't seem very important. Aleksandar Hemon

Writing School Important Everything Find Magazine Seem Could Pieces Read Got How Very Graduate Graduate School James Literary After While Them Then Really Twain English Hemingway Henry Published Henry James Started

A particular piece of music attaches itself to the piece I'm writing, and there is nothing else I can listen to. Every day I return to the same space to write, the music providing both the walls and the pictures on the walls. Aleksandar Hemon

Music Day Every Day Writing Walls Space Nothing Every Else Both Write Particular Pictures Piece Return Providing Itself Same Listen

I actually didn't listen to the Beatles song 'Nowhere Man' when I was writing my book of the same name. What I listened to a lot was 'Abbey Road.' Its disjointedness and its readiness to confuse only to delight were inspiring to me. Aleksandar Hemon

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