Hisham Matar

“I hope and pray that I'll be one of those fortunate people who have many, many books to write. I don't begrudge writing. I love the whole thing!”

“Language is not just a code; you are writing into its history, into its tides.”

“Growing up in the Libya of the 1970s, I remember the prevalence of local bands who were as much influenced by Arabic musical traditions as by the Rolling Stones or the Beatles. But the project of 'Arabisation' soon got to them, too, and western musical instruments were declared forbidden as 'instruments of imperialism.'”

“I've very aware of my rootlessness.”

“Switching languages is a form of conversion. And like all conversions, whether it's judged a failure or a success, it excites the desire to leave, go elsewhere, adopt a new language and start all over again. It also means that a conscious effort is demanded to remain still.”

“When a dictatorship imprisons someone or makes them disappear, it's actually a very strategic move. We forget that. It's not as senseless as it seems. It's a way to silence someone, but also it's a way to silence their family as well, out of fear, and society by extension.”

“From my family alone, Qaddafi had imprisoned five men.”

“It is easy to underestimate the demands of an open heart.”

“Like all novelists, I'm interested in the filters between reality and the imagination.”

“One of the reasons why Gadafy's dictatorship has managed to remain in power for so long is not just because it has shown itself to be able to exact a great deal of violence, both psychological and physical, on its people, but because it has been very successful at imposing a narrative, a story.”

“Being my father's son is a kind of privilege.”

“My father, the political dissident Jaballa Matar, disappeared from his home in Cairo in March 1990.”

“Civil war is a national crisis and also a private trauma: We suffer it collectively and in isolation.”

“One of the frustrations of prison life, which is also one of its intended consequences, is that the prisoner is made ineffective. He is unable to be of much use. The aim is to render him powerless.”

“The romantic idea of the penniless writer is false. It's terrible. I hated being in debt. I hated the anxiety of not knowing whether we could pay our rent that month. Thankfully, I had a wife who was very supportive and had faith and shared my madness.”

“I've always said - I've always said I'm not, by temperament, a romantic about revolutions or given to revolutions. I've always thought that they are not the ideal way to change.”

“When I was 12 years old, living in Cairo, my parents enrolled me in the American school. Most of the Americans there appeared oddly stifled, determined to remain, if not physically then sentimentally, back in the United States.”

“Some of the most powerful memories are those when you are very, very young. Adult life is seen through the reflection of complex, rational thought.”

“Throughout my entire life, I have lived in the shadow of the dictatorship. It denied me safety and security.”

“All great art allows us this: a glimpse across the limits of our self.”