Quotessence
Home / Authors / Edward Said
Edward Said

Edward Said Quotes

Professor

Filter quotes by topic

AllWorldStatesUnitedUnited StatesPeopleIslamEventsFactsHumansKind

Famous Edward Said Quotes

“Despite the variety and the differences, and however much we proclaim the contrary, what the media produce is neither spontaneous nor completely “free:” “news” does not just happen, pictures and ideas do not merely spring from reality into our eyes and minds, truth is not directly available, we do not have unrestrained variety at our disposal. For like all modes of communication, television, radio, and newspapers observe certain rules and conventions to get things across intelligibly, and it is these, often more than the reality being conveyed, that shape the material delivered by the media.”

RealityMediaNewsLiesFabrications
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“The Orient that appears in Orientalism, then, is a system of representations framed by a whole set of forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and later, Western empire.... The Orient is the stage on which the whole East is confined. On this stage will appear the figures whose role it is to represent the larger whole from which they emenate. The Orient then seems to be, not an unlimited extension beyond the familiar European world, but rather a closed field, a theatrical stage affixed to Europe.”

WorldWholeSeemsForceConsciousnessRolesStageFiguresFieldsEuropeWesternEastFamiliarEmpiresRepresentationExtensionsUnlimitedConfinedTheatricalFramedOrientalism
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“The central fact for me is, I think, that the [role of the] intellectual... cannot be played without a sense of being someone whose place it is publicly to raise embarrassing questions, to confront orthodoxy and dogma (rather than to produce them), to be someone who cannot easily be co-opted by governments or corporations, and whose raison d'etre is to represent all those people and issues that are routinely forgotten or swept under the rug.”

PeopleThinkingFactsGovernmentRolesIssuesProduceIntellectualRaisesForgottenCorporationsDogmaEmbarrassingOrthodoxyRaison D'etreEmbarrassing Questions
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“In the Islamic world, the U.S. is seen in two quite different ways. One view recognizes what an extraordinary country the U.S. is. Every Arab or Muslim that I know is tremendously interested in the United States. Many of them send their children here for education. Many of them come here for vacations. They do business here or get their training here. The other view is of the official United States, the United States of armies and interventions.”

KnowsWorldWayChildrenTwoDifferentCountryStatesUnitedViewsUnited StatesTrainingArmyExtraordinaryDifferent WaysOfficialsIslamicVacationIntervention
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“The Arab rulers are basically unpopular. They are supported by the United States against the wishes of their people. In all of this rather heady mixture of violence and policies that are remarkably unpopular right down to the last iota, it's not hard for demagogues, especially people who claim to speak in the name of religion, in this case Islam, to raise a crusade against the United States and say that we must somehow bring America down.”

PeopleHardStatesLastsAmericaNamesSpeakWishUnitedCasesUnited StatesViolencePolicyClaimsRaisesIslamRulersMixturesCrusades
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“The sense of Islam as a threatening Other - with Muslims depicted as fanatical, violent, lustful, irrational - develops during the colonial period in what I called Orientalism. The study of the Other has a lot to do with the control and dominance of Europe and the West generally in the Islamic world. And it has persisted because it's based very, very deeply in religious roots, where Islam is seen as a kind of competitor of Christianity.”

WorldKindReligiousChristianityStudyPeriodsEuropeRootsWestIslamViolentIslamicIrrationalThreateningCompetitorsDominanceVery DeepLustfulOrientalism
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“If you look at the curricula of most universities and schools in this country [USA], considering our long encounter with the Islamic world, there is very little there that you can get hold of that is really informative about Islam. If you look at the popular media, you'll see that the stereotype that begins with Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik has really remained and developed into the transnational villain of television and film and culture in general.”

IfsWorldLooksLittlesLongCountrySchoolFilmCultureMediaTelevisionIslamUniversityUsaEncountersIslamicVillainConsideringStereotypeInformativeRudolphValentino
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“It is very easy to make wild generalizations about Islam. All you have to do is read almost any issue of The New Republic and you'll see there the radical evil that's associated with Islam, the Arabs as having a depraved culture, and so forth. These are impossible generalizations to make in the United States about any other religious or ethnic group.”

StatesCultureEvilEasyReligiousUnitedUnited StatesIssuesImpossibleGroupsIslamRadicalRepublicGeneralizationDepravedEthnic Groups
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“It [9/11 event] was aimed at symbols: the World Trade Center, the heart of American capitalism, and the Pentagon, the headquarters of the American military establishment. But it was not meant to be argued with. It wasn't part of any negotiation. No message was intended with it. It spoke for itself, which is unusual.”

WorldHeartMilitaryEventsMessagesCapitalismTradeSymbolsSpokesMeant To BeUnusualEstablishmentNegotiationPentagonWorld TradeWorld Trade CenterHeadquartersAmerican MilitaryAmerican CapitalismWere Not Meant To Be
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“It [destroying Twin Towers] was a leap into another realm - the realm of crazy abstractions and mythological generalities, involving people who have hijacked Islam for their own purposes. It's important not to fall into that trap and to try to respond with a metaphysical retaliation of some sort.”

PeopleTryingImportantPurposeFallCrazyIslamRealmsLeapDestroyingTwinsTowersTrapsMetaphysicalAbstractionInvolvingGeneralitiesRetaliationTwin Towers
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“There isn't a clear goal in sight. Osama bin Laden's organization has spun out from him and is now probably independent of him. There will be others who will appear and reappear. This is why we need a much more precise, a much more defined, a much more patiently constructed campaign, as well as one that surveys not just the terrorists' presence but the root causes of terrorism, which are ascertainable.”

NeedsWellsCausesGoalClearRootsOrganizationSightIndependentTerrorismCampaignsTerroristDefinedPreciseBin LadenSurveysOsama Bin LadenSpunRoot CauseClear Goals
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“Most Arabs and Muslims feel that the United States hasn't really been paying much attention to their desires. They think it has been pursuing its policies for its own sake and not according to many of the principles that it claims are its own - democracy, self-determination, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, international law.”

ThinkingFeelsHas BeensSelfStatesLawDesireUnitedAttentionPrinciplesUnited StatesDemocracyPolicySpeechDeterminationClaimsSakeInternationalSelf DeterminationFreedom Of SpeechAssemblyInternational LawFreedom Of Assembly
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“And what terrifies me is that we're entering a phase where if you start to speak about this as something that can be understood historically - without any sympathy - you are going to be thought of as unpatriotic, and you are going to be forbidden. It's very dangerous. It is precisely incumbent on every citizen to quite understand the world we're living in and the history we are a part of and we are forming as a superpower.”

IfsWorldSpeakDangerousCitizensUnderstoodPhasesEnteringForbiddenSuperpowerIncumbentsUnpatriotic
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“What is quite worrisome is the absence of analysis and reflection. Take the word "terrorism." It has become synonymous now with anti-Americanism, which, in turn, has become synonymous with being critical of the United States, which, in turn, has become synonymous with being unpatriotic. That's an unacceptable series of equations.”

StatesTurnsUnitedUnited StatesReflectionSeriesCriticalTerrorismAbsenceAnalysisEquationsAmericanismUnpatriotic
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“Take a young man from Gaza living in the most horrendous conditions - most of it imposed by Israel - who straps dynamite around himself and then throws himself into a crowd of Israelis. I've never condoned or agreed with it, but at least it is understandable as the desperate wish of a human being who feels himself being crowded out of life and all of his surroundings, who sees his fellow citizens, other Palestinians, his parents, sisters, and brothers, suffering, being injured, or being killed. He wants to do something, to strike back.”

MenWantFeelsHumansYoungSufferingWishParentHuman BeingsConditionsBrotherCitizensFellowsCrowdsIsraelStrikesYoung ManDesperatePalestinianBrothers And SistersSurroundingsInjuredCrowdedGazaDynamiteStrike Back
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“The people who perpetrated the terror of the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings are something different because these people were obviously not desperate and poor refugee dwellers. They were middle class, educated enough to speak English, to be able to go to flight school, to come to America, to live in Florida.”

PeopleWorldDifferentEnoughAbleSchoolAmericaSpeakPoorClassMiddleTradeTerrorFlightEducatedDesperateMiddle ClassFloridaRefugeeBombingPentagonSpeak EnglishWorld TradeWorld Trade CenterDwellers
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“Captain Ahab was a man possessed with an obsessional drive to pursue the white whale which had harmed him - which had torn his leg out - to the ends of the Earth, no matter what happened. In the final scene of the novel, Captain Ahab is being borne out to sea, wrapped around the white whale with the rope of his own harpoon and going obviously to his death. It was a scene of almost suicidal finality.”

MenEndsMatterEarthWhiteNovelHappenedSeaSceneNo Matter WhatFinalsLegsPursuePossessedCaptainsTornSuicidalRopeWhalesFinalityAhab
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“All the words that George Bush used in public during the early stages of the crisis - "wanted, dead or alive," "a crusade," etc. - suggest not so much an orderly and considered progress towards bringing the man to justice according to international norms, but rather something apocalyptic, something of the order of the criminal atrocity itself. That will make matters a lot, lot worse, because there are always consequences.”

MenMatterWantedUsedOrderJusticeAliveProgressStageHe ManConsequenceCrisisInternationalCriminalsEtcNormAtrocitiesOrderlyApocalypticCrusades
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“Speaking as a New Yorker, I found it a shocking and terrifying event [9/11], particularly the scale of it. At bottom, it was an implacable desire to do harm to innocent people. It was aimed at symbols: the World Trade Center, the heart of American capitalism, and the Pentagon, the headquarters of the American military establishment.”

PeopleWorldHeartDesireFoundMilitaryEventsCapitalismTradeBottomHarmScalesInnocentSymbolsEstablishmentShockingNew YorkersPentagonWorld TradeWorld Trade CenterHeadquartersAmerican MilitaryAmerican Capitalism
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“This [terrorists attacks on 9/11] was part of nothing. It was a leap into another realm - the realm of crazy abstractions and mythological generalities, involving people who have hijacked Islam for their own purposes. It's important not to fall into that trap and to try to respond with a metaphysical retaliation of some sort.”

PeopleTryingImportantPurposeFallCrazyIslamTerroristRealmsLeapTrapsMetaphysicalAbstractionInvolvingGeneralitiesRetaliation
Author:Edward Said
Create image

“Osama bin Laden's organization has spun out from him and is now probably independent of him. There will be others who will appear and reappear. This is why we need a much more precise, a much more defined, a much more patiently constructed campaign, as well as one that surveys not just the terrorists' presence but the root causes of terrorism, which are ascertainable.”

NeedsWellsCausesRootsOrganizationIndependentTerrorismCampaignsTerroristDefinedPreciseBin LadenSurveysOsama Bin LadenSpunRoot Cause
Author:Edward Said
Create image