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Aleksandar Hemon

Aleksandar Hemon Quotes

Writer

Aleksandar Hemon is a Serbian-American writer known for his unique literary style and profound humanistic concerns. His works focus on themes of immigration, identity, and individual experience, and have won him a wide readership.

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Famous Aleksandar Hemon Quotes

“Lord, why did you leave me in these woods?”

Lord Woods Leaving Me

Book:The Lazarus Project

Source: The Lazarus Project

“I much preferred winning to thinking and I didn't like losing at all.”

Thinking Winning Losing

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I had an epiphany: I was a loser.”

Book:The Book of My Lives

Source: The Book of My Lives

“A particular piece of music attaches itself to the piece I'm writing, and there is nothing else I can listen to. Every day I return to the same space to write, the music providing both the walls and the pictures on the walls.”

Writing I Can Space Pieces Particular Wall Return Providing

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I actually didn't listen to the Beatles song 'Nowhere Man' when I was writing my book of the same name. What I listened to a lot was 'Abbey Road.' Its disjointedness and its readiness to confuse only to delight were inspiring to me.”

Men Writing Book Song Names Delight Readiness Abbey Abbey Road

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“We hated pretentiousness; it was a form of self-hatred.”

Self Form Hatred Hated Self Hatred Pretentiousness

Book:The Book of My Lives

Source: The Book of My Lives

“I cannot stand that whole game of confession, that is: Here I have sinned, now I'm confessing my sins, and describing my path of sin and then in the act of confession I beg for your forgiveness and redemption.”

Whole Games Sin Path Redemption Confession Describing Confessing

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I did not intend to stay; I had no experience in the United States - I may have been here less than 24 hours - but I knew I would never get inside there. And 'there' not being America necessarily, but that harmonious mode of living that some people are lucky enough to have in this country.”

People May Has Beens Country States Enough America Hours United United States Lucky Harmonious

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“The hopeless hope is one of the early harbingers of spring, bespeaking an innocent belief that the world might right its wrongs and reverse its curses simply because the trees are coming into leaf.”

World Might Belief Tree Spring Innocent Curse Hopeless Reverse Leafs Harbinger

Book:The Book of My Lives

Source: The Book of My Lives

“I like to blur the line between fact and fiction, but not to condescend to the reader by enmeshing her/him into some sort of a postmodern coop.”

Facts Lines Fiction Reader Blur Postmodern Fact And Fiction

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“One builds one's life in consistency; one invests it with the belief, however unsupported by reality, that one has always been what one is now, that even in one's distant past one could recognize the seed from which this doomed flower has bloomed.”

Reality Past Belief Flower Seeds Doomed Consistency

Book:Love and Obstacles

Source: Love and Obstacles

“I'll take any life in which I can make choices and have agency, and America is not a bad place for all that.”

I Can America Choices Agency

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I tend to wait for true stories to mature into fiction. Most of my fiction grew out of a long-germinating real-life situation.”

Long Real Stories Waiting Fiction Situation Grew Real Life Mature True Story

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I resist when someone calls me a novelist: it implies some kind of inherent superiority of the novel. I'm not a novelist, I'm a writer.”

Kind Novel Novelists Call Me Inherent Superiority

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I am a writer, which means I write stories, I write novels, and I would write poetry if I knew how to. I don't want to limit myself.”

Ifs Want Writing Mean Stories Novel Limits

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“In Bosnian, there's no distinction in literature between fiction and nonfiction; there's no word describing that.”

Literature Fiction Distinction Nonfiction Describing Fiction And Nonfiction Bosnians

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I cannot live or write without music. It stimulates the normally dormant parts of my brain that come in handy when constructing fiction.”

Writing Brain Fiction Handy Dormant Without Music

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“When I found myself in the U.S., and the war was at full swing in Bosnia, I read for survival - it was a means of thought resuscitation.”

Mean War Found Survival Swings Bosnia Resuscitation

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“God knows our despair. God wants His chosen people to live in peace. God loves life, cares less about death. We need to live. I want to live, I want my children to live. Everyone I know wants to live. You have to ask yourself what is more important to you, life is death. What is this world about - life or death?”

People Knows World Want Needs Children Important Care Life Is Asks This World Despair Chosen God Love My Children Love Life God Knows Life Or Death

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“For people who are displaced, you can reconstruct the story of your life from the objects you have access to, but if you don't have the objects then there are holes in your life. This is why people in Bosnia - if anyone was running back into a burning house it was to salvage photos.”

People Ifs Stories Running House Objects Access Holes Burning Bosnia Running Back Salvage Burning House

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I've been a Nick Cave fan since the early '80s when he was part of The Birthday Party thing singing Australian self-destructive rock band and I've always followed his work and loved it.”

Self Party Fans Rocks Band Singing Destructive Caves 80s Australian Self Destructive Rock Bands Birthday Party

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I long for, not a writer's retreat - I can write in any situation - but a reader's retreat.”

Writing Long I Can Situation Reader Retreat

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“New York is the Hollywood of the publishing industry, complete with stars, starlets, suicidal publishers/producers, intrigues, and a lot of money.”

Stars New York Industry Hollywood Producers Publishing Lots Of Money Publishers Intrigue Suicidal Publishing Industry Starlets

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“To me there's no difference between a book of stories and a novel - they're just slightly different shapes.”

Book Different Stories Differences Novel Shapes

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“I suppose I'm interested in sorrow, which is very different from depression or despair. Sorrow is continuous with the world; it allows for creativity.”

World Different Creativity Sorrow Despair

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“When I came to America, I was already a writer, already published in Bosnia. I was planning to go back, but I had no choice but to stay here after the civil war, so I enrolled at Northwestern in a master's program and studied American literature.”

War America Choices Literature Masters Program Planning Civil War American Literature Bosnia Northwestern

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

About the Author

Born: September 9, 1964
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 176

Related Topics

Writing Stories Thinking Ifs People World Way Knows Literature Book

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Lazarus ProjectRelated source material

The Book of My LivesRelated source material

The Making of Zombie WarsRelated source material

Love and ObstaclesRelated source material

Nowhere ManRelated source material

The Question of BrunoRelated source material

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