28 Andre Aciman Quotes for You to Enjoy

Andre Aciman

American Writer

Born: Jan 2, 1951

Life Past People Remember Time Writing

Related authors: Dale Carnegie Denis Waitley Dr. Seuss H. L. Mencken Napoleon Hill Ray Bradbury W. E. B. Du Bois William Arthur Ward

For the religious, Passover is the grateful remembrance of a homeward journey after years of suffering. Andre Aciman

Journey Grateful Suffering Religious Remembrance Years After

Some people have an identity. I have an alibi. I have a shadow self. Andre Aciman

People Some People Alibi Some Shadow Self Identity

I was born into a Turkish family that had acquired Italian citizenship. Many members of the family subsequently became British, French, Brazilian, and German, so there was a bit of everything. It was not uncommon for people in the family to speak seven languages: English, French, Ladino, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, and even Greek. Andre Aciman

Family People Speak Seven Everything Bit Members Arabic Citizenship Born Uncommon Had French Became Italian German Greek Subsequently Brazilian Turkish Acquired Languages English Many Even British

The problem with Egypt is that there is no public trust. There is no trust, period. Andre Aciman

Trust Problem Period Egypt The Problem With Public Public Trust

The last thing I want to do is to write about real things. I am not interested in reality and in real human beings and their real day-to-day problems - I just want to say to them, 'Hold still, and I'm just going to unpack, see what's inside.' Andre Aciman

Reality Problems Say Inside See About Write Day-To-Day Am Real Still Real Human Going Human Just Want Human Beings Hold Not Interested Interested Them Beings Thing Things Last

Writing the past is never a neutral act. Writing always asks the past to justify itself, to give its reasons... provided we can live with the reasons. What we want is a narrative, not a log; a tale, not a trial. This is why most people write memoirs using the conventions not of history, but of fiction. Andre Aciman

History People Writing Past Live Trial Log Memoirs Give Write Neutral Never Tale Most Narrative Always Provided Itself Want Fiction Conventions Justify Ask Act Reasons Using Why

Losing his wealth, his home, the life he had built, killed my father. He didn't die right away; it took four decades of exile to finish him off. Andre Aciman

Homer, Vergil, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Proust - not exactly authors one expects to whiz through or take lightly, but like all works of genius, they are meant to be read out loud and loved. Andre Aciman

Proust is interested in minutiae because life, as he sees it, is seldom ever about things but about our impression of things, not about facts but about the interpretation of facts, not about one particular feeling but about a confluence of conflicting feelings. Everything is elusive in Proust because nothing is ever certain. Andre Aciman

Life Feeling Feelings Nothing Interpretation Our Elusive Everything Minutiae About Sees Seldom Facts He Particular Because Proust Impression Conflicting Confluence Interested Certain Ever Things

Under Nasser, Egyptian nationalism was built on little more than pan-Arab irredentism and anti-Western and anti-Israeli sentiment. Mr. Mubarak retained these powerful brainwashers and allowed the rise of a religious component to further alienate Egyptians from liberal and democratic thinking. Andre Aciman

Nationalism Sentiment Thinking Liberal Alienate Further Religious Component Rise More Allowed Powerful Democratic Built Than Egyptian Egyptians Little Mubarak

Egypt wants to be young again. Israel must show it never grew old. Egypt wants to wake up and dream again. Israel must learn to dream though it cannot sleep. Andre Aciman

Wake Up Old Young Though Dream Must Never Learn Israel Wake Up Egypt Grew Wants Cannot Again Show Sleep

There was a time when Stefan Zweig was the most widely read author in the world. He was lionized everywhere, translated into every language. For the first four decades of the 20th century, his novellas and biographies were devoured by rich and poor, young and old, well read or less so. Andre Aciman

Time World Old Language First Young Rich Every Everywhere He Most Well Read Devoured Were His Author Decades Poor Century Translated Less Biographies Four Widely

Older students know what they want, which is good. Andre Aciman

Good Older Students Know Want Which

I can't forget the scene in 'My Night at Maud's' when the very pious engineer in the business suit decides to sit on Maud's bed while she is lying under the covers with only a T-shirt on, determined to seduce him. Andre Aciman

Business Engineer Sit Lying Seduce Determined Only Scene She Him Bed Covers Very Pious Forget Decide While Night Suit

'Almost' can be a polite way of saying something definitely. It withholds the obvious and dangles it just long enough. Andre Aciman

Saying Long Enough Way Definitely Something Almost Obvious Polite Just

'Almost' is about uncertainty soon to be dismissed but not quite dispelled. 'Almost' is about revelation to come but not entirely promised. Andre Aciman

Promised About Entirely Uncertainty Almost Soon Come Revelation Quite Dismissed

As a memoirist, I may claim to write the easier-to-remember things, but I could also just be writing to sweep them away. 'Don't bother me about my past,' I'll say, 'It's out in paperback now.' Andre Aciman

Writing plays fast and loose with the past. Andre Aciman

Writing Past Loose Fast Plays

Don't all writers have a hidden nerve, call it a secret chamber, something irreducibly theirs, which stirs their prose and makes it tick and turn this way or that, and identifies them, like a signature, though it lurks far deeper than their style, or their voice or other telltale antics? Andre Aciman

Style Other Secret Way Hidden Though Signature All Writers Nerve Something Voice Writers Prose Like Tick Call Makes Than Which Them Turn Far Deeper Chamber Lurks

A hidden nerve is what every writer is ultimately about. It's what all writers wish to uncover when writing about themselves in this age of the personal memoir. And yet it's also the first thing every writer learns to sidestep, to disguise, as though this nerve were a deep and shameful secret that needs to be swathed in many sheaths. Andre Aciman

Needs Age Writing Disguise First Wish Every Secret Hidden Though Memoir All Writers Nerve About Shameful Writer Writers Uncover Also First Thing Learns Were Ultimately Personal The First Thing Themselves Deep Many Thing

I tolerate lots of people I have no patience or respect for. Then, as soon as I can, I rat on them. Andre Aciman

Patience Respect People Rat Soon Lots Them Then Tolerate

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