For if there were a list of cosmic things that unite us, reader and writer, visible as it scrolled up into the distance, like the introduction to some epic science-fiction film, then shining brightly on that list would be the fact that we exist in a financial universe that is subject to massive gravitational pulls from states. States tug at us. States bend us. And, tirelessly, states seek to determine our orbits.

Mohsin Hamid

Categorized in : Epic Shining Distance

Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.

Mohsin Hamid

empathy echoes persons

If you have ever, sir, been through a breakup of a romantic relationship that involved great love, you will perhaps understand what I experienced. There is in such situations usually a moment of passion during which the unthinkable is said; this is followed by a sense of euphoria at finally being liberated; the world seems fresh as if seen for the first time then comes the inevitable period of doubt, the desperate and doomed backpedaling of regret; and only later, once emotions have receded, is one able to view with equanimity the journey through which one has passed.

Mohsin Hamid

regret breakup love-you

It's important to have a non-nostalgic view and say, let's look forward, because if we don't, all we'll hear are voices telling us to go back.

Mohsin Hamid

voice important views

I actually feel that personal matters, like religion and spirituality, are things that I really discuss only with intimates. I think it's, in a way, like sexuality, something where it touches upon something very private.

Mohsin Hamid

matter way thinking

It seems an obvious thing to say, but you should not imagine that we Pakistanis are all potential terrorists, just as we should not imagine that you Americans are all undercover assassins.

Mohsin Hamid

assassins obvious-things imagine

Time only moves in one direction. Remember that. Things always change.

Mohsin Hamid

one-direction remember moving

She was struggling against a current that brought her inside herself.

Mohsin Hamid

currents struggle

Contemporary culture in Pakistan, just like in America, is continuously hitting us with scary stuff. And so we are utterly anxious. I think that it's very important to resist that anxiety, to think of ways of resisting the constant inflow of negative feelings, not to become depoliticized as a result but to actually work actively to bring into being an optimistic future.

Mohsin Hamid

optimistic america thinking

I think that right now, the global political crisis that we see all over the place has to do with virulent nostalgia. Everywhere, people are talking about taking us back to the good old days. Whether that's the "caliphate," or Britain before the EU, or "Make America Great Again." But, we can't go back and many people wouldn't want to go back even if we could.

Mohsin Hamid

talking america thinking

There's a reason prophets perform miracles; language lacks the power to describe faith.

Mohsin Hamid

miracle language reason

What else is belief but direction?

Mohsin Hamid

belief

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.

Mohsin Hamid

hate love-is mean

The ruins proclaim the building was beautiful.

Mohsin Hamid

ruins building beautiful

I think massive migration is inevitable. As sea levels rise, as climate change happens, as fertile fields become arid, as wars are fought, people are going to move. They always have.

Mohsin Hamid

war moving thinking

All over the world, the nativist perspective is being privileged over those who are more recent arrivals.

Mohsin Hamid

privileged perspective world

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

Mohsin Hamid

levels love-is sometimes

When the uncertain future becomes the past, the past in turn becomes uncertain.

Mohsin Hamid

uncertain-future uncertain past

We are all refugees from our childhoods. And so we turn, among other things, to stories. To write a story, to read a story, is to be a refugee from the state of refugees. Writers and readers seek a solution to the problem that time passes, that those who have gone are gone and those who will go, which is to say every one of us, will go. For there was a moment when anything was possible. And there will be a moment when nothing is possible. But in between we can create.

Mohsin Hamid

childhood gone writing

You know, very often, if you look at the kinds of communications that they're getting in an ISIS recruiting video, the videos that, you know, that one hears of as radicalizing them, these are like action movies. And so in the sense, it's that by closing off the idea that young Muslims and particularly young Muslim men can be American heroes, it increases the chance that they'll try to be some other kind of hero. And that, I think, is entirely counterproductive.

Mohsin Hamid

communication hero men

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.

Mohsin Hamid

falling-in-love keys beautiful