Take away our things, and something in us dies. Andre Aciman More Quotes by Andre Aciman More Quotes From Andre Aciman Some people have an identity. I have an alibi. I have a shadow self. Andre Aciman shadow identity self people Rituals are how we step into our private field of dreams, a small Elysium all our own. Rituals are made not just for us, but for those we want to pass them on to. Andre Aciman step own dreams small Whenever we're having a great time, we're already anticipating the day when we will remember this great time. Many of us live in that unreal area between the past, the present, and the future. Andre Aciman day great future time We are, each one of us, not just defined by the arrangement of protein molecules in our cells, but also by the things we call our own. Andre Aciman us own just things In Alexandria, my birthplace and my home, all streets bearing Jewish names have been renamed. Andre Aciman jewish streets names home There comes the time at every Passover seder when someone will open a door to let in the prophet Elijah. At that moment, something like a spell invariably descends over the celebrants, and everyone stares into the doorway, trying to make out the quiet movements of the prophet as he glides his way in and takes the empty seat among us. Andre Aciman door moment time way The problem with Egypt is that there is no public trust. There is no trust, period. Andre Aciman period egypt trust problem I may write about place and displacement, but what I'm really writing about is dispersion, evasion, ambivalence: not so much a subject as a move in everything I write. Andre Aciman write everything place writing Nothing would have shocked Proust more than to hear that his work was perceived as difficult or inaccessibly rarefied. Andre Aciman more nothing difficult work The last thing I want to do is to write about real things. I am not interested in reality and in real human beings and their real day-to-day problems - I just want to say to them, 'Hold still, and I'm just going to unpack, see what's inside.' Andre Aciman i-am problems see reality 'Almost' is all about gradations and nuance and about suggestion and shades. Not quite a red wine, but not crimson, not purple either, or maroon; come to think of it, 'almost' Bordeaux. Andre Aciman think purple red wine Writing the past is never a neutral act. Writing always asks the past to justify itself, to give its reasons... provided we can live with the reasons. What we want is a narrative, not a log; a tale, not a trial. This is why most people write memoirs using the conventions not of history, but of fiction. Andre Aciman live history people past I was born into a Turkish family that had acquired Italian citizenship. Many members of the family subsequently became British, French, Brazilian, and German, so there was a bit of everything. It was not uncommon for people in the family to speak seven languages: English, French, Ladino, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, and even Greek. Andre Aciman born family speak people I flew on a plane the week after 9/11. Andre Aciman plane after flew week Rituals are magical. Andre Aciman rituals magical I write - so it would seem - to recapture, to preserve and return to the past, though I might just as easily be writing to forget and put that past behind me. Andre Aciman me writing forget past An exile reads change the way he reads time, memory, self, love, fear, beauty: in the key of loss. Andre Aciman change time beauty love Losing his wealth, his home, the life he had built, killed my father. He didn't die right away; it took four decades of exile to finish him off. Andre Aciman die home life father Homer, Vergil, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Proust - not exactly authors one expects to whiz through or take lightly, but like all works of genius, they are meant to be read out loud and loved. Andre Aciman loved like meant-to-be genius Proust is interested in minutiae because life, as he sees it, is seldom ever about things but about our impression of things, not about facts but about the interpretation of facts, not about one particular feeling but about a confluence of conflicting feelings. Everything is elusive in Proust because nothing is ever certain. Andre Aciman nothing feeling life facts
