Quotes from Hanif Kureishi

You see people truly when they enjoy the most.

A monster is someone who's being monstered.

Forgetting, along with hypocrisy, were, to him, the necessary arts central to living.

Sex is like art: if you know what you're doing, you don't know what you're doing.

Growing old isn't for pussies.

We are surviving, in this pleasant liberal enclave where people read and speak freely, on borrowed time. But for those not inside - the dispossessed of the world, the poor, the refugees and those forced into exile - existence is wasteland.

Herir a alguien es un acto de involuntaria intimidad

Sé que el amor es un trabajo sucio; tienes que mancharte las manos. Si te mantienes a distancia, no sucede nada interesante. Además, debes encontrar la distancia adecuada entre las personas. Si están demasiado cerca, te aplastan; si están demasiado lejos, te abandonan. ¿Cómo mantenerlos en la situación adecuada?

After seeing it work for so long, I began to perceive Charlie's charm as a method of robbing houses by persuading the owners to invite you in and take their possessions. I was in no doubt: it was robbery; there were objects of yours he wanted. And he took them. It was false and manipulative and I admired it tremendously.

The immigrant is the Everyman of the twentieth century.

One of his black girlfriends did once persuade him to go on an anti-racist demonstration; and when the National Front yelled, Get back, Pakis! Chili, wearing a mink-coloured suit, had annoyed everyone by taking out his fat wallet, waving it at the racists and shouting, Get back to your council flats, paupers!

Find the right distance between people. Too close, and they overwhelm you, too far and they abandon you.

Papá me enseñó a coquetear con todo el mundo, chicas y chicos, y acabé por considerar el encanto -y no la cortesía o la franquza, o incluso la decencia- la principal virtud mundana

If I weren't white and middle class I'd have been in Pyke's show now. Obviously mere talent gets you nowhere these days. Only the disadvantaged are going to succeed in seventies' England

Papá me enseñó a coquetear con todo el mundo, chicas y chicos, y acabé por considerar el encanto -y no la cortesía o la franqueza, o incluso la decencia- la principal virtud mundana

Cuando hablo conmigo mismo, es con ella con quien hablo

Asentí con la cabeza. Al fin y al cabo asentir no puede considerarse exactamente una mentira, ¿no?

Ja minä voin viedä tuon naisen - hän tarkoitti vaimoaan - ulos johonkin kauniiseen paikkaan.' 'Mihin kauniiseen paikkaan sinä viet sen, oopperaanko? Siellä pyörii kuulemma hyvä produktio Rigolettosta.' 'Eläintarhaan, jumalauta! Minne ikinä haluaa!' Anwar heittäytyi sentimentaaliseksi, kuten tunteettomat ihmiset usein.

What's that?' his wife said. She came closer. 'It's a penis,' she said. 'You've come home with a man's penis – complete with balls and pubic hair – in your pocket. Where did you get it?

Tisina je, a tisina je glasan zvuk.

Old age is the new childhood.

And silence, like darkness, can be kind; it, too, is a language. — Hanif Kureishi, Intimacy (Scribner, 1999)

Doesn't civilisation mean keeping your temper when there is no reason for restraint?

Ako pomislim što je pakao - to je kad si sam zauvijek u sobi 101 i nemaš što ?itati osim njegovih (Orwellovih) knjiga.