“Another effect of news articles is that the events, however frightening, can thus be consigned to the box of things that happen to other people, not us, and that we are doing things to bring them under control. This is the diet we're fed all the time, so we acculturate to it. And news must, in turn, follow the form to which we - our bodies - are accustomed: describe the event, incite the fear, then say how it's being addressed, how the herd's alpha males are dealing with it.” PeopleFrighteningAlpha MaleDealing With It Author:Zia Haider Rahman
“By delivering experience, novels can alter the stance we adopt toward news - not much, I'm sure, but they can make it a little more difficult for us to consign "other people" to our tidy boxes. Widening our imaginative life might - it's not hard to imagine - also develop our ability to contemplate counterfactuals and our capacity to speculate about how things might differ from how they're being represented.” PeopleDifficultAbilityNovelImagineContemplatingImaginative Author:Zia Haider Rahman
“I am sympathetic to the kind of faith that does not evangelize or raise banners but is the faith drawn on by a lone human being as a means of support or as an organizing principle or even as mere practice. It is faith that is born of humility and an understanding of one's own frailty. I can recognize it because I have met many people who exhibit this kind of faith.” PeopleKindMeanUnderstandingSupportHumilitySympatheticBannerLone Author:Zia Haider Rahman
“Listening to people discussing a novel can be very interesting, if you've read whatever novel is being discussed. No one, it seems, ever says, "This is a great book but I didn't like it." Taking a little time to think about why this might be has been very liberating.” PeopleThinkingBookInterestingNovelListeningVery InterestingLiberatingTime To ThinkGreat Book Author:Zia Haider Rahman
“Our interaction with our friends, for instance, is in large part an interaction with representations in our own head of the people before us. That's why a friend can surprise or disappoint us.” PeopleSurpriseRepresentationDisappoint Author:Zia Haider Rahman
“Novels need readers of a certain kind, people who are patient and enjoy immersing themselves in another perspective for uninterrupted stretches of time. Reading habits might well be changing. People who pay for novels might overlap significantly with those who engage in Twitter and Facebook.” PeopleKindReadingEnjoyNovelPerspectiveHabitPatientReading HabitsKind People Author:Zia Haider Rahman
“The technology broadens an individual's social field massively and at the same time makes it much, much easier and cheaper to consume gossip. We have the same appetite for gossip, but now its acquisition is even easier than grabbing sugary and fatty foods off a supermarket shelf. And look where that got us. When you watch people in public desperately punching away at their machines, it's hard not to think of addictions.” PeopleThinkingTechnologyAddictionGossip Author:Zia Haider Rahman
“There have been studies concluding that most people mostly know people only within their own social class - although such a conclusion would hardly surprise anyone. I think there's evidence to suggest that it's even narrower - the great majority of friends of Ivy Leaguers, for instance, are Ivy Leaguers. This narrows the pool of people who can write fiction cutting across class boundaries that's informed by their own personal experience.” PeopleThinkingWritingStudyCuttingEvidenceSurpriseBoundariesConclusionPool Author:Zia Haider Rahman
“Writing is indeed essential to me. I have been writing for a long time but not for publication. I'm sure there are many, many people who do the same. The rewards of writing are in the process and not the product - not just for me but for others I have met.” PeopleWritingLong Author:Zia Haider Rahman
