My earliest memories are of watching Star Trek and MASH while my parents barbecued chicken in the back yard. I was an American kid, through and through. Mohsin Hamid More Quotes by Mohsin Hamid More Quotes From Mohsin Hamid Sometimes we are looking for somebody we can connect with on the basis of a shared past or a tradition or experience. And so finding that you're sitting next to someone very much like you in terms of where they come from is enormously reassuring. Mohsin Hamid next sitting past If your book is set in the plantation days of the slave-owning South and you write a little romance between two slave owners without acknowledging the system they live, that's a political gesture. Mohsin Hamid writing two book I think writing is a very political act. I think that any writer who says it's not, is simply a writer who is disavowing the political connotations of what they write. Mohsin Hamid political writing thinking The ban on the burkini, which is basically a wetsuit, seems particularly ridiculous. Mohsin Hamid bans ridiculous seems The animosity between India and Pakistan is deeply unfortunate and dangerous, and it's something I've long campaigned to reduce. But right now, when there's artillery being exchanged in Kashmir - which is not for from here, either - and there are 100-ish nuclear weapons on each side of the border, there's never really been a case like this where two nuclear armed countries are happily shelling each other. Mohsin Hamid india-and-pakistan two country India to someone who lives in Lahore is like Queens to someone who lives in Lower Manhattan - it's not far away, and yet it doesn't exist. Mohsin Hamid manhattan india queens When I'm really plugged in I find it difficult to write. It's like digging a well. If you make a void, something moves in to fill it. Writing books is like that. It's mostly about freeing up time, doing nothing, and in that time some writing starts to happen. We need to figure out how to maintain those voids. Mohsin Hamid writing book moving I think walking is very useful, like sleeping and dreaming, as something that's important to my ability to write. Mohsin Hamid dream sleep writing Walking is very good for writers. There's something fundamentally useful about not talking to anybody, not looking at a screen, and being in nature - even if that nature is an urban environment. Mohsin Hamid urban environment talking When we aren't collectively imagining hopeful futures, then the way things are going almost invariably seems negative and frightening. Mohsin Hamid hopeful way negative Walking is a meditative act. It's so rare that we allow ourselves just to be. Mohsin Hamid walking In Italian, the word for novel is romanzo, "the romance." The English is "novel" - something new. Both of those elements, experimentation and love, are fundamental to the form. Mohsin Hamid romance italian fundamentals We think of the romance novel as a lesser form of literature, but I don't think that's true. Love is a very important aspect of human life and worth exploring. Mohsin Hamid romance love-is thinking The notion of love as a potentially destructive and potentially redemptive human force is something that comes across in all my books. Mohsin Hamid notion force book All human stories are migration stories because everyone is a refugee from their own childhood. Mohsin Hamid migration childhood stories I think we should be prepared, given environmental and political change for large-scale migration. If sea levels rise and 200 million people in Bangladesh and 300 million people in Indonesia need to move, and the entire Chinese seaboard, New York City - that's going to be huge. Mohsin Hamid new-york moving thinking If an American teenager were to come to Lahore, they'd have wildly different experiences depending on whom they met. They could party and get drunk and smoke hashish with some, while others would say, "Let's get some religious instruction." Mohsin Hamid teenager party religious In America there are people advocating for trans rights and people like Vice President Pence, who is vehemently opposed. In Pakistan, too, you have all kinds of folks - from flamboyant gay fashion designers and female Air Force pilots to the Taliban. A cross-dressed man used to be the top TV talk show host. It was actually quite radical. So the diversity of these societies is often lost on people. Mohsin Hamid fashion gay men The monolithic view that many Americans have of Pakistani culture is as inaccurate as the monolithic view that many Pakistanis have of American culture. Mohsin Hamid american-culture views culture My mother has been to Mecca to perform her hajj; my dad hasn't. I come from a very liberal family, so even the people who are outwardly religious tend to subscribe to gender equality, the importance of open-mindedness, all that stuff. My family is generally nonprescriptive. Mohsin Hamid dad religious mother
