The funny thing is that in Bosnia there are no words that are equivalent to fiction and nonfiction. From the storytelling point of view, the difference is artificial. Aleksandar Hemon More Quotes by Aleksandar Hemon More Quotes From Aleksandar Hemon There are studies that have shown that we make decisions, ethical and otherwise, based on the way we imagine ourselves as characters in the stories of our lives. In other words, if we imagine ourselves brave or crazy or open, we're more likely to make decisions in a given situation based on how we imagine ourselves, whatever the facts may be. Aleksandar Hemon crazy decision character People will always tell stories. The publishing industry might vanish, but not stories. Aleksandar Hemon stories might people The way I think of my work is that I have to think up the way to tell a story, starting from scratch. The changes in the industry concern me in a general way because I think civilization is doomed. Aleksandar Hemon scratches civilization thinking The people who listened to rock 'n' roll, I thought, were bound together against the people who didn't listen to rock 'n' roll. That, of course, didn't work at all. Your taste in rock 'n' roll does not say anything about you, morally or otherwise. Aleksandar Hemon rocks say-anything people There's no connection between consumption of art and moral stamina at all. Aleksandar Hemon connections moral art Arabs are a complete abstraction in the propaganda world and all the death and destruction is completely unreal to Americans. Aleksandar Hemon propaganda destruction world Every writer owes something to a particular tradition he/she grew up in. But no serious writer - other than the militantly nationalist ones - would reduce his/her domain of influence to a single tradition. Furthermore, historical breaks are so common and large in Europe that there are ruptures in every tradition which then connect the same generations across national borders. Younger Eastern European writers, for instance, have more in common with other writers of the same age in Europe, than with the previous, communist-era generations in their own countries. Aleksandar Hemon historical age country It is my belief that we as human beings have a need to tell stories - I think it's evolutionary. So you can think of the short story as a literary form, or you can instead think of stories. Aleksandar Hemon stories needs thinking If you find yourself as a person in unfamiliar territory, you will grasp on to what is already familiar. Aleksandar Hemon finding-yourself familiar territory We apply the language that is comforting and comfortable and familiar in order to grasp that which confuses and scares us. That is the first step toward cliché and stereotype, as they're comforting devices. They reduce the confusing world to the already familiar. We're always smoothing out the bumps of actual living to turn it into narratable life. Aleksandar Hemon confusing comforting order You can see the diversity that pieces in the anthology represent, and then the interconnections-obvious and less obvious-between various stories or between various modes of storytelling. Diversity generates need for conversation, conversation generates common interests, as well as differences. Literature, as a human project, is all about that. Aleksandar Hemon diversity literature common Europe is a rapidly changing place, on every level. Immigration, post-communist transitions, the unification, steady presence of war and conflict, the inescapable challenges to the notion of national literature/culture-it all exerts pressure upon writers who must be aware of the transformational possibilities of the situation. Aleksandar Hemon literature challenges war I do believe - and I know I shouldn't - that art transcends money and success and any of that. You can still do it if you're not clinging to the notion of nobility. Aleksandar Hemon clinging believe art One of the many conditions that have to be met for a brain to become a mind, and therefore have consciousness, is 'the analog I' around which all the simultaneous inflow of sensations and stimulations are reflected and organized. Aleksandar Hemon consciousness mind brain There's a social and human necessity for some kind of continuity, but it's not axiomatic and not something you're born into; it's something you have to work at. And one of the ways to work at it - perhaps the best - is storytelling: telling stories about yourself to others, telling stories about yourself to yourself, telling stories about others to others. Aleksandar Hemon telling-stories kind way We, as writers, have to figure out a way to create a consciousness in language. It's crazy even to attempt to do that. Aleksandar Hemon crazy language way What fiction and art can do, particularly narrative art, is construct consciousness - in a sense, we have to do it for the first time, every time. Aleksandar Hemon narrative art firsts I like to blow up this notion that all we have to do as writers and artists is represent reality, which is presumably solid and self-evident, with no negotiation of the gap between myself and the world, between this body and this space, which needs narration to close it. Aleksandar Hemon artist blow reality Anything that might come under arts should not be subject to the whims of the idiotic market because the market's stupid, and it gravitates toward simplicity - towards essentializing things so they can be sold. Aleksandar Hemon simplicity stupid art I don't think that everyone should have a philosophical answer to any given question. There are things that need to be done. Aleksandar Hemon philosophical should-have thinking
