Mohsin Hamid
Mohsin Hamid
Mohsin Hamidis a British Pakistani novelist and writer. His novels are Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia...
NationalityPakistani
ProfessionWriter
CountryPakistan
book writing years
I take six or seven years to write really small books. There is a kind of aesthetic of leanness, of brevity.
thinking self links
I think there's a natural link between the fact that our self is a story that we make up and that we're drawn to stories. It resonates, in a way.
bird flying borders
Maybe we are all prospective migrants. The lines of national borders on maps are artificial constructs, as unnatural to us as they are to birds flying overhead. Our first impulse is to ignore them.
self humanity brain
We need a self because the complexity of the chemical processes that make up our individual humanities exceeds the processing power of our brains.
actors world pakistan
The world seems concerned with Pakistan primarily as an actor in global attempts to combat terrorism.
land interesting comedian
Pakistan hasn't been cast in the role of... interesting cultural place or, you know, land of great comedians.
book echoes ambiguity
Oftentimes I deliberately put ambiguity into my books so that... the reader is left with an echo of: 'How much of this was from me?'
literature helping
Literature helps us transcend ourselves.
self imagine easy
If your sense of self is destabilised, to imagine being another becomes pretty easy.
vanity guy comfort
I'm not sure if guys are supposed to read Vanity Fair. I feel very metrosexual with it but am not sure it's in my comfort zone.
book taj-mahal painting
I'd rather create a miniature painting than a Taj Mahal of a book.
america years half
I was 30 when 9/11 happened and I had lived exactly 15 years of life in America, so I was half American. I was a full-fledged New Yorker.
strong thinking asia
I think there's really strong social stratification in South Asia.
wife soldier perception
Childbirth changed my perception of my wife. She was now the bloodied special forces soldier who had fought and risked everything for our family.