Your memories become fantasies if they are not shared, and your life in all its triviality becomes a legend. Aleksandar Hemon More Quotes by Aleksandar Hemon More Quotes From Aleksandar Hemon Wherever there's capitalism there's this inclination toward simplicity. There's also a human need to process complicated things by turning them into something else. Aleksandar Hemon simplicity complicated needs What I don't like about America is not necessarily an American thing; it's a capitalist thing. This is the Vatican of capitalism. Aleksandar Hemon capitalist capitalism america I believe people are much more complicated than they can handle. Aleksandar Hemon complicated believe people I cannot think of a country in which I would be happy with the government and dominant ideology and available propaganda. Aleksandar Hemon government country thinking My books have been published all over Europe. They read me there, and I want to read them back. I also spend a lot of time in Europe, often meeting writers, and I'm sick of apologizing for the embarrassing shortage of translations in America. Aleksandar Hemon apologizing sick book I'm bright, but there are lots of bright writers and people everywhere. In no way, at no point do I think I'm better than them. Aleksandar Hemon people way thinking The beauty of literature - also its limit - is that it is inescapably personal, even if you're writing science fiction. Aleksandar Hemon literature writing fiction I hate traveling and being away from my family. But I like meeting my readers, as what I write is actualized in them. Those encounters are exhilarating to me. Aleksandar Hemon encounters hate writing No reader owes me anything - I am owed nothing for my noble efforts, because my writing was always unconditional, always coming out of inner necessity. Aleksandar Hemon effort noble writing To me, the solidarity of readers is far more important than the solidarity of writers, particularly since readers in fact find ways to connect over a book or books, whatever they may be. Aleksandar Hemon important may book Whatever solidarity I have established with other writers individually, it is usually organized around books. We connected as readers, as it were, not writers. Aleksandar Hemon solidarity reader book What you demand from storytelling is a moral - even political - import. I tend to shun that didactic aspect. Aleksandar Hemon demand moral political It's not that war crimes stop as soon as a novel about them is published. Literature operates slowly, it is always inching toward bliss, never quite getting there. Aleksandar Hemon never-quit literature war The balls do not make a writer. Aleksandar Hemon balls I've read books in school that were written by ideological rote - they were brainwashers. Therefore, any art, any literature, that has a clearly defined political goal is repellent to me. Aleksandar Hemon book art school I am itching to criticize some well-regarded writers' works, but I am not doing it because I am perfectly aware that my critique could easily be reduced to envy or just plain meanness. Aleksandar Hemon meanness envy criticize For a fight to be productive, or at least relevant, writers should fight over different demands they put upon writing (as an individual, private act) and literature (a network of relations in which we are all involved). Aleksandar Hemon different fighting writing Rilke said that art can come only out of inner necessity. I write because I must. Or because I cannot not write. Aleksandar Hemon said writing art I write and read with the assumption that literature contains knowledge of human experience that is not available otherwise. Aleksandar Hemon assumption literature writing I want a book to contain a world - indeed the world. Writing is my main means of engagement with the world and I want the scars of that engagement to be left in the language. Aleksandar Hemon writing mean book
