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Quote by Mohsin Hamid

“I think fiction allows you to inhabit new domains and it's you, the reader living in that domain for a few days that results in a deeper understanding as opposed to the novel proclaiming this is what it is right and this is what is wrong.”

Quote by Mohsin Hamid

Author

Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani-British writer born in Karachi in 1971. His works often explore themes of globalization, identity, and modernity. Hamid's debut novel, 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist,' published in 2001, received widespread acclaim and earned him numerous awards. His other notable works include 'How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia' and 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist'. more

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“I think the idea of migration through time is very important because every human being does that and it unites us with people who migrate through geography.”

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“Our countries are weaker: they cannot protect us from imported goods, they can't protect us from climate change, they cannot protect us from epidemics. These things cross borders. But the kind of cooperation that would protect us from those things was completely lacking and because of this there's been a backlash. People feel vulnerable.”

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“If we try to 'protect ourselves', our nation-states begin to look like prisons.”

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“We're being subject to incredible amounts of surveillance, the police are taking on draconian powers and violating our rights. I think this attempt to protect ourselves is ultimately going to founder because people don't like living inside prisons.”

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“Transience is what is normal. The problem is that we are busily trying to create political structures and cultural expressions that deny that and to deny that is to deny the basic idea of what is human.”

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“What used to help us to cope with transience was stuff like, extended families all living in one place, or very strong religious beliefs, or a tribe that would outlive you. That stuff is getting weaker.”

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“With movement, families get split. With the politicization of religion, spirituality gets diluted. With people intermarrying and falling in love outside of pre-existing defined groups, the tribe is disappearing. I'm not in favor of going back to those things, but you can't take those things away without putting something new in its place. So finding a way to make transience more acceptable, even beautiful is key.”

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“Love is transient even on a very personal level. We lose everyone that we love. Sometimes we drift apart and sometimes we die.”

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“So much of our conversation about love is possessive. "You are mine. And if you stop being mine, I will hate you." And so exploring non-possessive ideas of love and friendship is important. Which is not to say we should just break down monogamy, I'm not taking a simplistic point of view. But, in addition to these examples of possessive love that we already have so much of, let us also explore what examples of non-possessive love and affection mean.”

“I have a funny relationship to language. When I came to California when I was three I spoke Urdu fluently and I didn't speak a word of English. Within a few months I lost all my Urdu and spoke only English and then I learned Urdu all over again when I was nine. Urdu is my first language but it's not as good as my English and it's sort of become my third language. English is my best language but was the second language I learned.”

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