Quotes from Rabih Alameddine

My father and I rarely saw eye to eye when I was growing up. We saw the world differently. It was only when we were both adults that we were able to share spectacles. However, football, and particularly the World Cup, was when we, enemy combatants, could traverse trenches and be together.

In 1982, Algeria made their first appearance at the World Cup. I believe it was the first Arab country to do so.

One of the things I enjoy most during the World Cup is watching a team improve, mature, and gel during the course of the tournament.

I always assumed that everyone knew no country would ever be awarded a World Cup without pricey gifts exchanging hands under the tables.

The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990, spanned four World Cups. It would have been a more symmetrical five had the Lebanese begun in 1974, but you know, we're Mediterranean, and timing isn't our forte.

I oscillate between being cynical and being naive on a regular basis. I always think that not much shocks me until something much too obvious does.

When I wrote my first book, 'Koolaids,' I felt rejected and not wanted.

All living languages are promiscuous. We promiscuous speakers shamelessly shoplift words, plucking bons mots and phrases from any tempting language. We wear these words when we wish to be more formal, more elegant, more mysterious, worldly, precise, vague.

Now I love hoops. I'm a diehard UCLA fan, have been since my freshman year. But basketball is the '1812 Overture.' Pomp and circumstance, fireworks and cannons, lots and lots of fun, and in the end, still Tchaikovsky.

In Lebanon, there are completely different opinions and values in one country in terms of religion, modernity, tradition, East and West - which allows for a kind of intellectual development not available anywhere else.

Close friends consider me a literary snob.

No one needs to be reminded of racism in soccer: the xenophobia, the nativism and, yes, nationalism.

Nobody ever calls me a soccer-playing writer, even though I play soccer and it's part of who I am.

For me, soccer was a dance.

Homophobia is rampant in soccer, probably more so than in any other sport. I'm not sure why.

I gave up on the delusion that these players enjoy soccer as much as I do, that they play for the love of the game.

I think I'm being conservative when I say there are more people playing soccer in the United States than in 90% of the world's other countries, probably 95%.

I know many sports fans that don't enjoy soccer. The argument is that there's no action, not enough of it.

A game of soccer induces more than enjoyment, more than entertainment.

There are over 1 million refugees in Lebanon, a country of 4 million people. How do we solve that? I have no idea. What's going on, I really don't know.

A player should be disparaged if he gives less than his all, if he doesn't give 100%, no matter what shirt he's wearing. Whether it's your national team, your club, or little league. Yes, there are friendly matches, recreational ones, and so on, but sport in its essence is about giving your best.

In 1975, I left the burning city of Beirut for the quiet insanity of England. To say that short, frail and wispy 15-year-old me didn't fit in would be such an understatement as to be a joke.

I loved problems on paper, and I was good at math, but I was a mechanical engineer, and I never understood - or cared to - how a car worked.

English has always had a special fondness for other European languages, a neighborly soft spot - perhaps because Britain has been invaded by speakers of those languages from the onset of its recorded history.