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Top 30 Hisham Matar Quotes (2025 Update)

Hisham Matar Quote: “There and then, sitting beside her and within the strength of my adoration, I felt invincible.”

1. “There and then, sitting beside her and within the strength of my adoration, I felt invincible.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “What do you do when you cannot leave and cannot return?”

2. “What do you do when you cannot leave and cannot return?”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.”

3. “Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “My father is both dead and alive. I do not have a grammar for him. He is in the past, present and future. Even if I had held his hand, and felt it slacken, as he exhaled his last breath, I would still, I believe, every time I refer to him, pause to search for the right tense. I suspect many men who have buried their fathers feel the same. I am no different. I live, as we all live, in the aftermath.”

4. “My father is both dead and alive. I do not have a grammar for him. He is in the past, present and future. Even if I had held his hand, and felt it slacken, as he exhaled his last breath, I would still, I believe, every time I refer to him, pause to search for the right tense. I suspect many men who have buried their fathers feel the same. I am no different. I live, as we all live, in the aftermath.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “When I first began writing In the Country of Men all I had was the voice of the protagonist. He intrigued me and my desire to want to know him and his world became almost compulsive.”

5. “When I first began writing In the Country of Men all I had was the voice of the protagonist. He intrigued me and my desire to want to know him and his world became almost compulsive.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “Books written out of fire give me a great deal of pleasure. You get the sense that the world for these writers could not have continued if the book hadn’t been written. When you come across a book like that it is a privilege.”

6. “Books written out of fire give me a great deal of pleasure. You get the sense that the world for these writers could not have continued if the book hadn’t been written. When you come across a book like that it is a privilege.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “And I remember this man who never ran out of poems telling me once that knowing a book by heart is like carrying a house inside your chest.”

7. “And I remember this man who never ran out of poems telling me once that knowing a book by heart is like carrying a house inside your chest.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “And I suppose that is what we want from our mothers: to maintain the world and, even if it is a lie, to proceed as though the world could be maintained. Whereas my father was obsessed with the past and the future, with returning to and remaking Libya, my mother was devoted to the present. For this reason, she was the truly radical force in my adolescence.”

8. “And I suppose that is what we want from our mothers: to maintain the world and, even if it is a lie, to proceed as though the world could be maintained. Whereas my father was obsessed with the past and the future, with returning to and remaking Libya, my mother was devoted to the present. For this reason, she was the truly radical force in my adolescence.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “Perhaps the world is fair and balanced after all; no one gains and no one loses or no one gains and everyone loses equally.”

9. “Perhaps the world is fair and balanced after all; no one gains and no one loses or no one gains and everyone loses equally.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “There is a moment when you realise that you and your parent are not the same person, and it usually occurs when you are both consumed by a similar passion.”

10. “There is a moment when you realise that you and your parent are not the same person, and it usually occurs when you are both consumed by a similar passion.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “It is sometimes hard to escape the belief that history exists against the artist.”

11. “It is sometimes hard to escape the belief that history exists against the artist.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “It represented, in moments of desperation, the possibility of finally cheating myself out of exile.”

12. “It represented, in moments of desperation, the possibility of finally cheating myself out of exile.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “I wanted to wear her as you would a piece of clothing, to fold into her ribs, be a stone in her mouth.”

13. “I wanted to wear her as you would a piece of clothing, to fold into her ribs, be a stone in her mouth.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “I am of the firm opinion that no one should tell writers what to do, or what to write, or how to write.”

14. “I am of the firm opinion that no one should tell writers what to do, or what to write, or how to write.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “Nothing is more acceptable than what we are born into.”

15. “Nothing is more acceptable than what we are born into.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “So old and persistent did Mother’s unhappiness seem that I had never stopped to ask its true cause. Nothing is more acceptable than that which we are born into.”

16. “So old and persistent did Mother’s unhappiness seem that I had never stopped to ask its true cause. Nothing is more acceptable than that which we are born into.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “History remembers Mussolini as the buffoonish Fascist, the ineffective silly man of Italy who led a lame military campaign in the Second World War, but in Libya he oversaw a campaign of genocide. The.”

17. “History remembers Mussolini as the buffoonish Fascist, the ineffective silly man of Italy who led a lame military campaign in the Second World War, but in Libya he oversaw a campaign of genocide. The.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “I wanted everything good in the world for him; every dream he had, all of his secret plans, to come true. I suddenly was glad that Mona was his.”

18. “I wanted everything good in the world for him; every dream he had, all of his secret plans, to come true. I suddenly was glad that Mona was his.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “He had given me something priceless: namely, his confidence. I am grateful I was forced to make my own way. His disappearance did put me in need and make my future uncertain, but it turns out need and uncertainty can be excellent teachers.”

19. “He had given me something priceless: namely, his confidence. I am grateful I was forced to make my own way. His disappearance did put me in need and make my future uncertain, but it turns out need and uncertainty can be excellent teachers.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “It’s one thing not to fear death, another to sing under its sword.”

20. “It’s one thing not to fear death, another to sing under its sword.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “At that time I would read passages of Father’s books or a newspaper article that I was certain he had read because I wanted to follow a trail he had taken.”

21. “At that time I would read passages of Father’s books or a newspaper article that I was certain he had read because I wanted to follow a trail he had taken.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “There are times when my father’s absence is as heavy as a child sitting on my chest.”

22. “There are times when my father’s absence is as heavy as a child sitting on my chest.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “It’s not your job to read their hearts,′ he once told me after I claimed, with shameful certainty, that begging was a profession. ‘Your duty is not to doubt but to give.”

23. “It’s not your job to read their hearts,′ he once told me after I claimed, with shameful certainty, that begging was a profession. ‘Your duty is not to doubt but to give.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “If we were all engaged in some conversation, she would direct most of her contributions towards me, as if I were the front wall of a squash court.”

24. “If we were all engaged in some conversation, she would direct most of her contributions towards me, as if I were the front wall of a squash court.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “The world had to be sliced into hours to fill; otherwise you could go mad with loneliness.”

25. “The world had to be sliced into hours to fill; otherwise you could go mad with loneliness.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “Encountering our dialect during those years was always disconcerting, provoking in me, and with equal force, both fear and longing.”

26. “Encountering our dialect during those years was always disconcerting, provoking in me, and with equal force, both fear and longing.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “The three things that help writing the most are living, writing, and reading. In that order.”

27. “The three things that help writing the most are living, writing, and reading. In that order.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “Naoma, and to the rest of the world she was Um.”

28. “Naoma, and to the rest of the world she was Um.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “Suddenly he is beside me. I do not know how, but we are the same age. There is something tragic about this fact.”

29. “Suddenly he is beside me. I do not know how, but we are the same age. There is something tragic about this fact.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “The past, like a severed limb, tried to fix itself onto the body of the present.”

30. “The past, like a severed limb, tried to fix itself onto the body of the present.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “The simple rule was never to refuse any one or thing in need. “It’s not your job to read their hearts,” he once told me after I claimed, with shameful certainty, that begging was a profession. “Your duty is not to doubt but to give. And don’t ask questions at the door. Allow them only to tell you what they came for after they’ve had tea and something to eat.”

31. “The simple rule was never to refuse any one or thing in need. “It’s not your job to read their hearts,” he once told me after I claimed, with shameful certainty, that begging was a profession. “Your duty is not to doubt but to give. And don’t ask questions at the door. Allow them only to tell you what they came for after they’ve had tea and something to eat.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “I had always regarded Manhattan the way an orphan might think of the mother who had laid him on the doorstep of a mosque: it meant nothing to me but also everything.”

32. “I had always regarded Manhattan the way an orphan might think of the mother who had laid him on the doorstep of a mosque: it meant nothing to me but also everything.”

— Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar Quote: “He had seen the banning of books, music and films, the closure of theaters and cinemas, the outlawing of football, and all the other countless ways in which the Libyan dictatorship, like a crazed jealous lover, infiltrated every aspect of public and private life.”

33. “He had seen the banning of books, music and films, the closure of theaters and cinemas, the outlawing of football, and all the other countless ways in which the Libyan dictatorship, like a crazed jealous lover, infiltrated every aspect of public and private life.”

— Hisham Matar

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