“I can pinpoint the exact moment when I first began to think about what...” — Hisham Matar Quote

“I can pinpoint the exact moment when I first began to think about what profession I should go into. It was 1978. I was seven and had just been handed over by the women of my family to the earnest and self-important gatherings of the men. I was no longer the responsibility of my aunts and older female cousins. I was now a man. This was a tragedy.”

“I sometimes wonder if I would have become a writer if what happened to my father hadn't happened.”

“I hope and pray that I'll be one of those fortunate people who have many, many books to write. I don't begrudge writing. I love the whole thing!”

“As a young boy in Libya, it was hard to escape the conclusion that the women were the most feeling and most functional part of society.”

“One of the reasons why Gadafy's dictatorship has managed to remain in power for so long is not just because it has shown itself to be able to exact a great deal of violence, both psychological and physical, on its people, but because it has been very successful at imposing a narrative, a story.”

“Two of my aunts are Catholic sisters.”

“We are very close as a family. There are uncles and aunts for whom I would stand in front of a truck.”

“I've had aunts and uncles who not only haven't read my books but could hardly believe that I was a writer.”

“The friends I have from childhood are definitely like family to me - extended sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles.”

“I was a really picky eater as a child. Because I was obsessed by Popeye, my mum and aunts would put my food in a can to represent spinach and we'd hum the Popeye tune and then I'd happily eat it.”

“My parents had become adults during the Great Depression, as had many of my aunts and uncles, so I got stories from all of them. They are fastened up inside me, and now and again, they have to come out.”