Hanif Kureishi Quotes

“You don't stop loving someone just because you hate them.”

“No amount of promises can guarantee love”

“Our lives can only be lived forward and understood backwards. Living a life and understanding it occupy different dimensions.”

“Yes, Eleanor loathed herself and yet required praise, which she then never believed.”

“Nothing can be repaired or advanced but only accepted”

“Falling in love was simple; one had only to yield. Digesting another person, however, and sustaining love, was bloody work, and not a soft job.”

“Without love, most of life remains concealed. Nothing is as fascinating as love, unfortunately.”

“… I love 'yes.' It's practically the most interesting word of all, don't you think?" Like a hinge opening a door outward. Yes, yes, yes.”

“Love cannot be measured by its duration…”

“At 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.”

“What a quality of innocence people have when they don't expect to be harmed.”

“you can’t just let people down, dammit.”

“How disturbing it is that our illusions are often our most important beliefs.”

“The cruellest thing you can do to Kerouac is reread him at thirty-eight.”

“Dear God, teach me to be careless.”

“Please remove your watch,' he said. 'In my domain time isn't a factor.”

“Security and safety were the reward of dullness.”

“The vocation of each writer is to describe the world as he or she sees it; anything more than that is advertising.”

“They gave us the language but it is only we who know how to use it”