Hisham Matar

“Like most dictators, Col Gaddafi detests the metropolis. His vision of Libya is a kind of Bedouin romantic medievalism, suspicious of universities, theatres, galleries and cafes, and so monitors the cities' inhabitants with paranoid suspicion.”

“I wanted to wear her as you would a piece of clothing, to fold into her ribs, be a stone in her mouth.”

“Libyans are deeply unsettled by Gaddafi and his regime's careless contempt for human life. The dictatorship is willing to employ any methods necessary to remain in power.”

“From before I was born, we Arabs have been caught between two forces that, seemingly, cannot be defeated: our ruthless dictators, who oppress and humiliate us, and the cynical western powers, who would rather see us ruled by criminals loyal to them than have democratically elected leaders accountable to us.”

“My family settled in Cairo in 1980. I was nine. I missed Libya terribly, but I also took to Cairo. I perfected the accent. People assumed I was Egyptian.”

“For an overwhelming majority of my life, my country has been a source of pain, fear, and embarrassment.”

“As a young boy in Libya, it was hard to escape the conclusion that the women were the most feeling and most functional part of society.”

“A revolution is not a painless march to the gates of freedom and justice. It is a struggle between rage and hope, between the temptation to destroy and the desire to build.”

“Making something of loss is, on some level, satisfying.”

“There are two voices: the first says write; the second hardly speaks, but I know what he wants. And if I let him, nothing would get done. He hovers at the edges.”

“There's something very bizarre about having a father who has disappeared. It's very hard to articulate.”

“To me, writing is like singing in the most inappropriate place, singing as beautifully as you can on a bus or in a bank, where people least expect it, and trying to get them to want to listen.”

“Can you become a man without becoming your father?”

“Architecture remains a passion and a subject I'm very interested in. I learned a great deal from studying it and working in it.”

“I am, by instinct, wary of revolutions. The gathering of the masses fills me with trepidation.”

“I think, ultimately, I am a sensualist and an aesthete.”