Falling in love was simple; one had only to yield. Digesting another person, however, and sustaining love, was bloody work, and not a soft job. Hanif Kureishi More Quotes by Hanif Kureishi More Quotes From Hanif Kureishi Almost certainly I will not tell her my intentions this evening or tonight. I will put it off. Why? Because words are actions and they make things happen. Once they are out you cannot put them back. Hanif Kureishi evening tonight action Dear God, teach me to be careless. Hanif Kureishi dear-god dear teach Fundamentalism is dictatorship of the mind Hanif Kureishi fundamentalism dictatorship mind My guess is that she is uncomfortable in such an intransigent world but is unable to live accordingly to her own desire. Hanif Kureishi uncomfortable desire world For Mum, life was fundamentally hell. You went blind, you got raped, people forgot your birthday, Nixon got elected, your husband fled with a blonde from Beckenham, and then you got old, you couldn't walk and you died. Hanif Kureishi husband blonde people I began to enjoy my own generosity; I felt the pleasure of pleasing others, especially as this was accompanied by money-power. I was paying for them; they were grateful, they had to be; and they could no longer see me as a failure. Hanif Kureishi pleasing-others generosity grateful One would hope, as well that intimacy would leave more of a mark, that more of it would remain. But it doesn’t. You just end up thinking, who is this person? Hanif Kureishi intimacy ends thinking My pleasures disappeared with my vices. Hanif Kureishi pleasure vices Security and safety were the reward of dullness. Hanif Kureishi dullness rewards safety If you get depressed, you can be stuck for months; if you have an analyst, you at least have a chance of getting out of it faster. Hanif Kureishi analysts months chance All the same, my depression and self-hatred, my desire to mutilate myself with broken bottles, my numbness and crying fits, my inability to get out of bed for days and days, the feeling of the world moving in to crush me, went on and on. But I knew I wouldn't go mad, even if that release, that letting-go, was a freedom I desired. I was waiting for myself to heal. Hanif Kureishi crush letting-go depression Secrets are my currency: I deal in them for a living. The secrets of desire, of what people really want, and of what they fear the most. The secrets of why love is difficult, sex complicated, living painful and death so close and yet placed far away. Why are pleasure and punishment closely related? How do our bodies speak? Why do we make ourselves ill? Why do you want to fail? Why is pleasure hard to bear? Hanif Kureishi punishment love-is sex
