Quotes from Hanif Kureishi

Religion tells you everything when there is disarray.

He remembered, though, that his favorite servant had been sacked for kitchen misdemeanors; once for making toast by lying on his back and suspending bread from between his toes over a flame, and on a second occasion for cleaning celery with a toothbrush--his own brush, as it happened, not the Master's, but that was no excuse.

My father] murmured only, 'you can always tell when a woman is ready for sex. Oh yes. Her ears get hot.' I looked keenly at Helen's ears. I even reached out and pinched one of them lightly, for scientific confirmation. Warmish!

Hurting someone is an act of reluctant intimacy. We will be dangerous acquaintances with a history.

I have lost my relish for living. I am apathetic and most of the time want nothing, except to understand why there hasn't been more happiness here. Is it like this for everyone? Is this all you get? Is this the most there could be?

Elle vivait seule et travaillait plus dur que quiconque, évitait les contagions petites-bourgeoises: le doute de soi, le mépris des études, l'ennui.

Sometimes writers like to imagine that the difficulty of becoming a writer resides in convincing others that that is what you are. But really the problem is in convincing yourself.

Hubiese querido que mi vida empezara entonces, en aquel preciso instante, cuando estaba preparado para ello

saw she wanted to scour that suburban stigma right off her body. She didn't realize it was in the blood and not on the skin; she didn't see there could be nothing more suburban than suburbanites repudiating themselves.

Was I conceived like this, I wondered, in the suburban night air, to the wailing of Christian curses from the mouth of a renegade Muslim masquerading as a Buddhist ?

I've always hated your fucking nagging.' 'It's not nagging, it's for compassion.' 'Right. I won't be coming back here, Eva. You're such a drag now. It's your age. Is it the menopause that's making you like this?

And you'd get point A followed by points B and C, and on the one hand F, and on the other foot G, until you could see the whole alphabet stretching ahead, each letter a Sahara in itself to be crawled across

All day, everywhere he went, he heard stories of the remarkable penis, not only of its size and strength, but of its warm way with strangers.

And you and she? Stuffing regularly?' 'No, no, for God's sake, Bubble, not since the time you watched us. It wouldn't be the same without you there.

Nos aferramos al pasado -dijo-, a lo antiguo, porque tenemos miedo. [...] Nuestras vidas se estancan, se vuelven rancias. Nos da miedo todo lo nuevo, todo cuanto podría ayudarnos a crecer, a cambiar.

He wasn't proud of his past, but he wasn't unproud of it either; it just existed, and there wasn't any point in fetishizing it.

If living is an art it is a strange one, an art of everything, and particularly of spirited pleasure.

...I love 'yes.' It's practically the most interesting word of all, don't you think?" Like a hinge opening a door outward. Yes, yes, yes.

No amount of promises can guarantee love

But in love each moment is magnified, and every gesture, word and syllable is examined like a speech by the President.

'Anna Karenina' is just a story about a woman falling in love with a bloke who is not her husband. It's gossip, rubbish - on the other hand, it's the deepest story there could be about social transgression, about love, betrayal, duty, children.

If jealousy was the vindaloo of love, I'd imagined her tongue burning, and such a fire forcing her to spill her truth.

If you want something badly enough, you make arrangements. If you don't want it badly enough, you make excuses.

At the deepest level people are madder than they want to believe. You will find that they fear being eaten, and are alarmed by their desire to devour others.