Quotes from Hisham Matar

I am longing to see Libya rejoin the world as the internationalist Mediterranean country that it was.

We got rid of Muammar Gaddafi. I never thought I would be able to write these words.

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.

My work is my shelter, particularly in these moments when things are happening fast.

Books have shown me horror and beauty.

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

The cost of Colonel Gaddafi's rule on Libyan society is incalculable.

Audacity, hope, courage - the Libyans have these in abundance. But all those boring little things - like organization, building a committee - is hard; making decisions and moving ahead is hard.

I admire Turgenev, Camus, Proust and Shakespeare, but I've also learnt a lot about writing from composers and artists.

Dreams have consequences.

In Libya, I did well at school because I was clever. In Egyptian public school, I got the highest marks for the basest of reasons. And in the American school, I struggled. Everything - mathematics, the sciences, pottery, swimming - had to be conducted in a language I hardly knew and that was neither spoken in the streets nor at home.

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.

Nothing we read can import new or foreign feelings that we don't, in one form or another, already possess.

Political dictatorships take possession not just of money and belongings but of narrative.

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.

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!

I used to be a keen rider. Sometimes I could sense what a horse liked or preferred to do.

When you've been living in hope for a long time as I have, suddenly you realize that certainty is far more desirable than hope.

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

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

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

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

I don't believe people are interested in dates and facts. I don't think it is interesting to say what it is to be this person or that, but I do believe it is entertaining and perhaps even of value to express how it is to be that person.