‘Often, we the natives of the Balkans or the Middle East, with our extraordinarily polyphonic histories and hurts, are narrated by others – usually others from the dominant colonising cultures.’
Read More
‘Often, we the natives of the Balkans or the Middle East, with our extraordinarily polyphonic histories and hurts, are narrated by others – usually others from the dominant colonising cultures.’
Read More‘I think that the creation of an equal, just society is impossible under capitalism, which is why we need to learn from the mistakes of the past and imagine other ways of living. I think understanding caste, class, race inequalities is fundamental to any understanding of women’s struggle.’
Read More‘Charismatic and powerful men, at least in our societies, see their role as looking after their own interests rather than serving others. That’s how it is, and more and more so as neoliberalism takes hold of our governments.’
Read MoreI don’t want anyone to think that I’m an artist one day and an activist the next. When I get politically involved, I do so as an artist. That is important to me.
Read MoreIt has become the motto of our age to say, ‘Oh I hate politics’ – without realising that that is the most political statement you can come up with.
Read MoreI think fiction starts with something really unusual. We keep trying to be normal, day after day, but normality is a fiction. It is a space between you and me, but there is nobody who occupies that space.
Read More‘This novel is structured around the relationship between silence and speaking. Silence is the major hero. People who have gone through terrible trauma don’t want to remember. It all needed time to come out, and now things are coming out.’
Read More‘People will fight another to assert the truth of their story. Novels tell us that in fact there isn’t one story. Everybody has a piece of a true story. It is like the story of the blind people and the elephant.’
Read MoreI never consciously make a decision about what to say in a poem: the poem itself says itself. So the poem happens. It doesn’t happen because I have decided that it should happen. It wasn’t a conscious decision to write about nature. The nature just bubbled out.
Read More‘I’m not interested in history itself. I’m interested in the past that has not passed.’
Read MoreI am contesting the validity of history as we know it, because what is recorded is never told from the perspective of the victim, it is always the victor.
Read MoreThe concept of a ‘nation’ doesn’t have the power to describe the contemporary identity of people living in the world. We should look for other ideas to describe us as a collective, as a group, as a society.
Read MoreTo write thinking of a novel’s reception and anticipating that it will be of interest is an idea of hell, a betrayal.
Read MoreWe have to work on two fronts. We have to do something about the structures, and we also have to help the individual.
Read MoreYou become an estranged human being, which leads to a certain kind of solitude and loneliness.
Read More‘Even if you’re 75 years old and haven’t left the city you’ve grown up in, you have migrated through time. To me, it feels like the theme of being human is being a migrant.’
Read More