If you never left anything or anyone there would be no room for the new. Naturally, to move on is an infidelity -- to others, to the past, to old notions of oneself. Perhaps every day should contain at least one essential infidelity or necessary betrayal. It would be an optimistic, hopeful act, guaranteeing belief in the future -- a declaration that things can be not only different but better.
Hanif KureishiAt the deepest level people are madder than they want to believe. You will find that they fear being eaten, and are alarmed by their desire to devour others.
Hanif KureishiBut in love each moment is magnified, and every gesture, word and syllable is examined like a speech by the President.
Hanif KureishiWatching Jamila sometimes made me think the world was divided into three sorts of people: those who knew what they wanted to do; those (the unhappiest) who never knew what their purpose in life was; and those who found out later on. I was in the last category, I reckoned, which didn't stop me wishing I'd been born into the first.
Hanif KureishiIf you want something badly enough, you make arrangements. If you don't want it badly enough, you make excuses.
Hanif KureishiIt seemed to me that the real philosophical breakthroughs of the 20th century were in terms of the understanding of language. What is language? Where does it come from, how does it work, what does it do?
Hanif KureishiAll the same, my depression and self-hatred, my desire to mutilate myself with broken bottles, my numbness and crying fits, my inability to get out of bed for days and days, the feeling of the world moving in to crush me, went on and on. But I knew I wouldn't go mad, even if that release, that letting-go, was a freedom I desired. I was waiting for myself to heal.
Hanif Kureishi