I am determined to live without illusions. I want to look at reality straight. Without hiding. Hanif Kureishi More Quotes by Hanif Kureishi More Quotes From Hanif Kureishi Being in love means being at the mercy of someone's childhood. Hanif Kureishi being-in-love childhood mean If you want something badly enough, you make arrangements. If you don't want it badly enough, you make excuses. Hanif Kureishi want-something excuse enough England has become a squalid, uncomfortable, ugly place ... an intolerant, racist, homophobic, narrow-minded, authoritarian, rat-hole run by vicious, suburban-minded, materialistic philistines. Hanif Kureishi racist insulting running And silence, like darkness, can be kind; it, too, is a language. Hanif Kureishi be-kind silence darkness These days everyone was insisting on their identity, coming out as a man, woman, gay, black, Jew - brandishing whichever features they could claim, as if without a tag they wouldn’t be human. Hanif Kureishi black gay men Watching Jamila sometimes made me think the world was divided into three sorts of people: those who knew what they wanted to do; those (the unhappiest) who never knew what their purpose in life was; and those who found out later on. I was in the last category, I reckoned, which didn't stop me wishing I'd been born into the first. Hanif Kureishi wish people thinking I don't want to be loved. I want to be desired. Love is safety, but desire is foul. Hanif Kureishi safety desire love-is The vocation of each writer is to describe the world as he or she sees it; anything more than that is advertising. Hanif Kureishi vocation advertising world Without love, most of life remains concealed. Nothing is as fascinating as love, unfortunately. Hanif Kureishi without-love concealed remains Our lives can only be lived forward and understood backwards. Living a life and understanding it occupy different dimensions. Hanif Kureishi dimensions different understanding How disturbing it is that our illusions are often our most important beliefs. Hanif Kureishi illusion important belief Harvey [Weinstein] didn't want to release [MY SON THE FANATIC]; he held it for two years because he wanted a happy ending, although I don't know what that means. Does that mean the taxi driver leaves his wife or doesn't leave his wife? I think it has a happy ending. Hanif Kureishi mean son thinking If you never left anything or anyone there would be no room for the new. Naturally, to move on is an infidelity -- to others, to the past, to old notions of oneself. Perhaps every day should contain at least one essential infidelity or necessary betrayal. It would be an optimistic, hopeful act, guaranteeing belief in the future -- a declaration that things can be not only different but better. Hanif Kureishi betrayal optimistic moving It seemed to me that the real philosophical breakthroughs of the 20th century were in terms of the understanding of language. What is language? Where does it come from, how does it work, what does it do? Hanif Kureishi philosophical understanding real Please remove your watch,' he said. 'In my domain time isn't a factor. Hanif Kureishi domain said watches What a quality of innocence people have when they don't expect to be harmed. Hanif Kureishi innocence quality people Why do people who are good at families have to be smug and assume it is the only way to live. … Why can’t they be blamed for being bad at promiscuity? Hanif Kureishi way-to-live assuming people I guess writing is a kind of therapy in the sense that there are things you need to say and you say them, and better out than in. Hanif Kureishi kind writing needs At the same time, you have to find the right distance between people. Too close, and they overwhelm you, too far and they abandon you. How to hold them in the right relation? Hanif Kureishi distance relation people You don't stop loving someone just because you hate them. Hanif Kureishi loving-someone intimacy hate
