Quotes from Nuruddin Farah

Death in Somalia seldom bothers to announce its arrival. In fact, death calls with the arrogance of a guest confident on receiving a warm welcome at any time, no question asked.

That in a civil war there is continuous fighting, based on grievences that are forever changing.

I have tried my best to keep my country alive by writing about it.

She wondered then if she had ever been on the right track. She had been reticent all her life, because it turned out that her opinions were different from what others expected. 'That proves either that I am an exceptional idiot, or the reverse.

No writing is good enough until you, as an author, make a small contribution, the size of a drop, into the ocean of the world's literature.

What's more, she gives shapes to the links between words and their meanings, and then fits them into chains of her own choosing.

Death in Somalia seldom bothers to announce its arrival. In fact, death calls with the arrogance of a guest confident on receiving a warm welcome at any time, no question asked.

It's possible that some of us cannot help losing ourselves in the sorrows of other people's stories.

one group's resistance fighter is another group's rogue.

You are a question to yourself. You've become a question to all those who meet you, those who know you (...). You doubt, at times, if you exist outside your own thoughts, outside your own head.

There are moments in one's life when everything one considers to be a win is for all practical purposes a loss.

favorite Norwegian novel, Giants in the Earth.