All Quotes

"the more sincere and intimate the relationship between a work and its reader, the better. So the countries that don’t have walls don’t need windows either, because the entire world is their field of vision and they can establish an unmediated relationship with their readers. I, in turn, envy them their free world."

"Being iconoclastic is only acceptable and desirable if the public—or at least a specific segment of society—is open to it. A literature that the public cannot relate to in any form will not endure. I have been iconoclastic, but I’ve never broken my ties with Iran’s past literature. No one can create a noteworthy work without knowing the tenets of their own language and literature. Language is renewed but it never changes its essence, because the contracts that have come about over time for communication cannot be rescinded so easily. It takes a thousand years before a word, among the thousands of words, dies away in a language or changes its meaning. Literature rests on language. It is a linguistic art. So it cannot sever its relationship with the past. But it can create new methods and styles that differ in structure, form, and content from the past."

"(Q: What advice would you give to young writers?) A: Read, read and read. You can’t write without reading."

"Every writer has a unique outlook to the world. So, it’s just natural that the works be different. This diversity is the beauty of literature."

"Feminism is about defending the rights of women. I support any movement that in any way fights for the oppressed and the persecuted, whoever they are."

"Writing for me is survival...When I don’t write, I feel suffocated. Actually, I realised this after I immigrated to the US, that writing for me is living itself. Writing soothes me."

"(Q: How do the stories come to you?) A: Sometimes in a hazy and ambiguous form. An image, a memory, even the movement of a hand, whatever that inspires my imagination...Storms, the sea and its waves always bring me stories."

"(Q: What is your favourite theme?) A: Everything about man and their struggles, their falling in love, their endeavour for survival and their fight against tyranny, the tyranny of the society, the government, the family and the nature."

"(Q: Who has influenced you most as a writer?) A: All the writers before me whom I have read. And even the writers I read these days. But Saedi was an important one. I read his sceneplays when I was a student. His stories have this ethereal quality that I genuinely enjoy. There was also Savushun, which I read as a student. Then there was Mahmoud Dolatabadi, whose characters were so powerful and familiar. Golshiri was another influence on me. He was a pioneer of using modern forms in Persian storytelling."

"A free-thinking writer does not acquiesce to the mind-numbing laws of oppression. A free-thinking writer is against oppression, not a party to it."

"I don’t know when we are going to realize that our language is our nation, and it goes wherever we go in mind, body and soul, and is part of the fabric of our existence."

"Censorship, which is a relic from the days of slavery, enslaves writers, painters, and filmmakers. It does not allow us to publish our books in an organic way…I am saddened for myself and my fellow writers who are embattled with a group of narrow-minded, self-absorbed people with underdeveloped principles, who still think they can create the world in their own image."

"Time has shown that the political system in our country can only change our holiday “Chehar-shanbeh Soori” (literally means ‘Wednesday celebration’) which is a sign of friendship and peace into “chehar-shanbeh Sooozi” (which translates to Wednesday inferno). The system that has created the conniving mentality of pitting “us” against “them” and it has to be removed by the root before we can do something for our own language. This language is a gift that has been handed down to us and the least we can do, is as much as forefathers did, which is pass it down to the next generation. We need to build hope against all this hopelessness that’s so rampant in our country."

"Why the fuck are you talking to the president about me? Fuck you. I’m gonna punch you in your fucking face."

"I’m going to fucking beat your ass."

"Denmark’s investment in U.S. Treasury bonds, like Denmark itself, is irrelevant."

"The most important thing in project management is understanding the problem. And once you understand the problem, then the solution is half provided."

"Leadership is not about people not having complaints. But leadership is about you being responsible enough to listen and respond to the complaints instead of throwing those complaints away."

"The government must burst the evil, wicked and corrupt cartel in our prisons. They must be held accountable for all the financial allocations from the government, humanitarian organisations and individuals, to who support our prisons daily. We need to call a spade a spade, for once."

"As much as we are not ready to dabble into the sovereignty of other nations, the issue of visas, issue of migration management is a sovereign issue."

"Imam kar precej znancev, ki mi povedo, da ob prejemu Ognjišča najprej pogledajo, če je v njem kaj mojega, kar z veseljem preberejo. Nekateri me tudi okregajo, da so moje zgodbe prekratke."

"Vsaka zgodba ima resnično jedro, marsikaj pa spremenim. V vsako zgodbo pa položim nauk, čeprav nevsiljivo, a kdor želi, ga lahko najde."

"Začetek pri osemindvajsetih letih je bil res težak. … Tedaj, ko nisem poznala mladega človeka bolnega, se nisem mogla sprijazniti z boleznijo. … Pater Simon Ašič (ki je bil njen spovednik in prijatelj) je bil prvi, ki mi je pomagal, da sem prišla v stik z bolniki. Bila sem na srečanju na Brezjah, ki ga že vrsto let prireja Ognjišče. Ko sem videla invalide na vozičkih, ko so mi na obisk pripeljali invalida, sem pomislila, kaj bi ta dal, da bi še hodil. Tako sem kmalu znala sprejemati, biti hvaležna Bogu za to, kar še imam moči in zdravja."

"»Ljubi Jezus, ti veš, komu je ta moja bolečina potrebna,« je prosila v svojem srcu. »Nakloni njene sadove tistemu, za katerega veš, da mu je potrebna. Praznik Vseh svetnikov se bliža, morda bo kdo omahoval, da bi pred praznikom stopil v spovednico. Po tej moji bolečini mu daj moči in poguma za spravo s teboj.«"

"If a woman is there and is competent, she opens the door for others."

"Life has taught me the importance of appreciating family, friends. A lot of people contributed to who I am today."

"My world is compressed. Warris Road, lined with rain gutters, lies between Queens Road and Jail Road: both wide, clean, orderly, streets at the affluent fringes of Lahore."

"What is happening with the Talibanization is really frightening [in the FATA and NWFP] – it’s scary because the brunt seems to fall on the women. When people talk of religion they often think in terms of “a woman shouldn’t do this or shouldn’t do that.” It’s not only Islam or in Islamic countries – in America the issue becomes the “woman doesn’t have right over her body,” etc. And in Pakistan, we go through a cycle of hope and despair. Right now we are in a place where we don’t know where we are headed…"

"[about the Partition of India] The roar of the mobs appeared to be a constant in my life; even as a 7 year old I knew it was an evil that threatened our lives. I couldn’t make out the words although I vaguely realized they were shouting religious slogans as they set fire to houses and harmed people. The memory of smoke and fire and fear and the sudden appearance of hoards of bedraggled refugees in my neighborhood are still vivid."

"Globalization has its advantages. To be translated and read in several countries is immensely satisfying; after all a writer - this writer at least - is driven by the impulse to communicate. Conversely, globalization exposes one to wonderful writers from diverse cultures."

"Writer’s narratives are woven into the fabric of life and history – it makes people aware of where they stand in relation to each other and the rest of the world. The word, as we understand it, may mutate, but it will always count."

"Basically where you come from in your writing is what you have experienced yourself, have internally absorbed as part of your adventure of life and I think that’s the best you can do… is writing about things that you know intimately."

"There is no comparison between what Partition was to what today is. Partition was a time of too much chaos. I am the only old woman in this room who remembers that time. I was seven or eight. And I remember the roar of the mob from a distance. I couldn’t make out the words. But later, I was able to decipher the “Hare Hare Maha Dev”, the “Allahu Akbar” and the “Sat Siriye Kaal”. Even back then, I could understand that they are killing each other. I knew it was evil. And there was no comparison to what’s happening today."

"You cannot write a non-political book anywhere in the world. Because politics colours each character’s way of thinking, way of relating to other people and so on. You see, each time there has been a regime change in Pakistan, I have felt myself changing. During the time of Bhutto, the women around us felt very energised. I was joining women’s committees, we were doing progressive things. And when Zia came, we sort of wilted and all the energy just drained away from us. Then Benazir came, and we all felt different. So it influenced us, as people, as characters. It influences how men look at us. You see? So the dynamics between people change. It’s all related to politics, to culture, to your environment. It all influences you."

"The Parsi community has been on the brink of extinction ever since I can remember, but it seems to be holding its own and still flourishing in Mumbai, Karachi, and recently in America and Britain. Of course, Parsi youth are marrying outside the community and many of the children born to these marriages are not accepted as Parsi, but this too is changing. I think this dodo bird of world religions will continue to exist -- at least I hope so!"

"Sidhwa's triumph lies in creating characters so rich in hilarious and accurate detail, so alive and active, that long after one has closed the book, they continue to perform their extraordinary and wonderful feats before our eyes."

"A ground-breaking writer, whose works have lost none of their freshness, humour or heart"

"Bapsi Sidhwa has blossomed into Pakistan's best writer of fiction in English...Cracking India deserves to be ranked as amongst the most authentic and best on the partition of India.""

"I was mystified one morning in an outpatient department by the numerous and vague complaints of an Italian boy—who, incidentally, neglected to mention his chief trouble—and in order to temporize he was told to return with a "24-hour specimen". The next morning he arrived in a Ford car with sundry members of his family and six jugs containing 20 litres of pale, clear ! I need scarcely remark that this was my first experience with ."

"Born of pioneering stock, with three generations of physicians behind him, it is not surprising that should turn the full force of his tremendous energies to charting a little known field — the human brain. After attending Yale College and , he went to the where, under the influence of , Osler and , he made himself eminent as a and as a leader in the reform of . Cushing was one of the earliest in the United States to use s; the first to take routinely during surgical operations and in general practice. The use of the in brain operations was first developed by him."

"I have chosen to place ... and ... side by side ... Both men were incredibly industrious., Osler's output running to 1,195 books and papers, as indicated in Maude Abbott's bibliography, ... while Choulant published sixty separate books (see Appendix IV); his journal contributions have never been counted or collected."

"John F. Fulton was one of the leading figures internationally in and history of medicine between the early 1930s and 1960. Working at the laboratory of physiology at Yale University, he was a pioneer in the study of the functional localisation of the cerebral cortex in primates. His 1938 treatise Physiology of the nervous system was a milestone in the development of neurophysiology. Fulton created a working environment at the laboratory where training was provided to important scientists who later directed centres in their home countries. He stood out as speaker, editor, communicator, and member of several committees, and established many links with foreign figures, including the Spanish physicians , Jaume Pi-Sunyer, , , and Francisco Guerra. Fulton was a student of and Harvey Cushing and showed a special interest for the world of Santiago Ramón y Cajal. A great bibliophile, he dedicated the last years of his short but intense life to the history of medicine, publishing studies on Michael Servetus."

"She saw them before they saw her, the two men leaning against a dusty red Cortina and looking out of place in the regimented grey street. Her heart lurched and her stomach sickened. There was a stitch in her left side and she leaned heavily into it, pressing her palm hard against the spot, her breathing ragged as she came to a dead stop."

"racism is not a white problem; it's a problem of the world."

"the church has done more to destroy people in the Caribbean than any other institution."

"[about the character Hyacinth in The Unbelonging] the reason she's an outsider here [in England] is because she never ever made a life here. She lived there in the past, but time continued."

"because I have written a book which actually goes to the heart of how poor people are kept in control - which is by the church actually doing the job for the government - people are resentful."

"It struck me that memory is actually quite negative in lots of ways because it stops you from creating new, sustaining memories as a kind of other to survive with...It's...as though if you don't resolve all that luggage you carry around with you, it somehow is going to come back and haunt you."

"[about writing a character who works as a cleaner] you've got to look beyond the mop because there's a human being there; and until you can accept the fact that people are people and stop seeing people through the eyes of occupation segregation then you are always going to be prepared to step on people."

"(Q: Your first three novels are powerful indictments of racism, Joan. Yet you've gotten some negative responses from the British for them.) Riley: I think because I'm writing about their backyard. It's okay for people from elsewhere to write even similar things, but it's not right to write about British systems in the same way."